Afghanistan stuns India, wins

Afghanistan broke India’s stranglehold on the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) title with an impressive 2-0 win over the defending champions in Kathmandu on Wednesday. An estimated 5,000 fans at Dasarath Rangasala Stadium in the Nepalese capital witnessed the final in a repeat of the previous final in 2011 in New Delhi between the same teams. This was Afghanistan’s first international trophy in football. Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives and hosts Nepal were the other teams in the tournament, regarded as the symbol of football supremacy in South Asia.

This is a significant milestone for Afghanistan, which has endured decades of war and insurrection. Afghanistan had a strong football fan base from the 1950s to the 1970s, which was stamped out by the Soviet Union and all but run underground by the Taliban. As recently as 1996-2001, the Taliban were using the nation’s football stadiums for public executions. The victory was cause for celebration in Kabul where fans flocked to restaurants and cafes to watch the match. When the game came to a close, celebratory gunfire could be heard throughout the city for about an hour, as car horns resounded and citizens held national flags.

However it was a sad day for India who have always been the dominating team in South Asia, having won the trophy six times.  Six-time champions India were staring at a hat-trick of SAFF Cup titles but were completely outplayed by Afghanistan in the final. SAFF Cup was the only tournament that India dominated, but that too is not the case now we lost to Afghanistan, where the footballers don’t even have proper infrastructure for the game.

So the future of Indian football does not look bright and until something is done about the state of football in India, Indian football will still continue to fall to ignominy.

Also in the latest edition of FIFA rankings of August, India have been ranked at a lowly 155th position, and have also dropped from 24th to 28th spot in the continent. Among the teams from the subcontinent Maldives has pipped India as they are now ranked 152 while Afghanistan moved up to 132nd position in the world and 19th in Asia. India are however still ahead of the other SAF countries Nepal(163), Bangladesh(166), Sri Lanka(168) and Pakistan(170).