Football and India (Part 2)

Continuing from “Football and India (Part 1)”, let me ask the question “What’s holding back Indian football?” Football League in India traces their origins back to the 1880s, when the game was introduced by British colonials. Indeed, league football was being played in Calcutta long before Real Madrid or the world governing body FIFA even existed. So what went so wrong that India has been denigrated to the status of a minnow in world football.

The reason for such an abysmal state of Indian football is the absence of any specific plan to improve the standard of the sport in India. One big problem is that India is not investing to nurture youth programmes. The clubs’ inability to include youth programmes in their system has given rise to such a crisis. AIFF needs to come out with better rules and regulations that will benefit the future of football in our country. They need to force clubs to seriously implement a strong programme within the club and ensure that the base is strong. This includes academies and major emphasis on youth development and harnessing home grown talent.

Apart from the various clubs, national youth football is traditionally controlled by a different body - the Sports Authority of India - which gets no money from FIFA or AIFF. So AIFF must make sure sufficient funds are allocated for youth development.

There is no doubt the amount of untapped potential is huge. This is evident from the amazing success of eighteen girls from a village on the outskirts of Ranchi who had finished third representing Yuwa India, an NGO in the prestigious Gasteiz Cup, an International Under-14 tournament, in Spain. The big problem India is facing is a lack of scouts. We lack a strong scouting system like they have in Europe and all over the world. Due to the enormous size of our country, most of the talent is hidden in very remote areas, which is why many scouts are needed who will keep travelling the nation’s length and breadth looking for talents like Messi and Ronaldo.

Infrastructure is another major reason which is limiting football to grow in India. The clubs and the football federation need to take conscious initiative to improve the infrastruture.

Mitigating the above problems will surely go a long way in ensuring that India will become a footballing force in the future.