With a population of
more than 1 Billion the country should be among the top players in the world. However we are not even in the top players
in Asia. Ranked 147th in
the FIFA world cup ranking, the Indian Football has only and continue to
see bad days since it first started to play football. In the initial days of
the game India was invited to play in the FIFA world cup, but due to the
players playing bare feet and travelling all the way through sea, AIFA (All India Football Association)
rejected the offer, an opportunity they should never have missed.
It doesn't take much
time to figure out that the Indian Football is facing a lot of problems today.
Though the interest in the game is on the upswing, there is lot of obstacles
which we need to tackle for the game to develop. Some of the problems, which
have stopped the game from growing, are as follows:
- Lack Of Infrastructure
One
of the major problems in Indian football is lack of infrastructure. Whether it’s
proper stadiums or training grounds, the sport is severely lacking a lot of
these. Most I league venues are multipurpose venues and desperately need
refurbishment to hot the 2017 Under 17 global football tournament. Most of
these venues are owned by government or local municipalities and thus are not
been taken care of. They are hired for public shows or concerts. Today the
stadiums are in so bad shape that the
senior national team has to go abroad to practice.
- Slow Youth Development
The
lack of adequate youth development has been slowing down Indian Football for
decades now. To counter that the AIFF is
making efforts to start regional academics, but the efforts are not enough
to match with higher ranked Asian Countries. The I league clubs are also the culprits here as they don’t have
academics and most of them instead of training the players throughout the year
rather assemble the team weeks before the match. Also age fraud is another problem
- Unprofessionalism Of Clubs
The
clubs themselves don’t have things aligned in order. They don’t have licensing
and thus are not made a separate legal entity. The clubs have recently taken
licensing as a serious factor. The problems of these clubs extend to the fact
that there are still no clubs, which
play matches on their stadium.
- Absence Of A Football Culture
The
game is followed throughout the country, kids play football in streets, and the
interest in the game only seem to rise. But due to lack of proper training and facilities it is not considered as a
career option among the youth. Even in places like Kolkata where football
history is rich, people prefer Cricket to Football due to limited career
options in the latter.
In my opinion the game
of football in India can be improved by the introduction of the Indian Super League, as it would
provide to the youth an opportunity to rise and improve. As for the government,
the playgrounds meant for football should not be hired to organize public
events or concerts, they must be maintained so that various clubs who don’t
have stadiums of their own can practice there and don’t have to go abroad to
practice. Also the country needs well-trained
coaches, who can pick talent in the beginning years and can train them to
make world-class players. Cricket is not the only sport the country plays. We
all need to take initiative to make football an equally opportunistic game. We
need to understand our shortcomings, the reason behind them and work upon them.
If we work upon the mentioned problems the Indian football will surely
flourish.
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About the Author:
Shekhar Tanwar is a computer science engineer who is working
with a renowned MNC and is a die heart defense aspirant. Guitar is his
passion and he is very firm believer of physical fitness. This article is a
way to help defense aspirants to present his critical views on the topic, on
the forum so that collective exchange of thoughts can take place.
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