Why does a country of a billion people with a red hot economy fail to produce a football

side which qualifies for the World Cup?

As another edition of the world's greatest sporting event picks up pace, Indian football fans
indulge in a familiar ritual of proxy worship. They slip into Argentina and Brazil - their two
favourite teams - tee shirts and drape themselves in their flags, paint their icons on walls, and
celebrate raucously when their favourite foreign team wins.
India's ranking in world football is a miserable 133. To put this into perspective, Burkina Faso,
Benin, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Haiti and Fiji rank higher.
India can take solace in some backbencher consolation that others in its neighbourhood are doing
worse: Bangladesh (157), Sri Lanka (159), Nepal (161), Pakistan (165) and Bhutan (196). This is
truly the bottom heap of the 202 football playing nations in the world.
It wasn't always like this.
Playing barefoot with reasonable ball skills, India actually qualified for the World Cup in Brazil
in 1950 - the only time it has done so. But lack of foreign exchange, the prospects of a long sea
journey and an insistence on playing barefoot meant that the team never made it to Brazil.
India even picked up the gold in football in the first Asian Games in 1951, beating a suitably
booted Iran by a solitary goal. In 1956, after having put on its boots, India reached the semi-final
in Olympics football, the first Asian country to do so. It stood fourth in the tournament. In 1962,
India again picked up the football gold in the Asian Games.
Thereafter it was all downhill. India never qualified for the Olympics after 1960. It picked up a
bronze in the 1970 Asian Games in Bangkok, described by commentators as "the swan song of
Indian football".
So why can't a country where a third of its population is under 14 years of age - a nursery of
potential footballers - with a long history of club football can't put together 11 young men who
can kick ball and take it to the World Cup?

There was never a lack of football fans in the country. When I was growing up in Calcutta, the
local football league matches played out on rough grounds with rickety stands were packed to
the brim. There were football magazines and fan clubs aplenty. Only when World Cup football
began beaming live on TV in the mid-1980s we discovered that the gods we had worshipped
locally were made of clay.
Regular football leagues take place in at least eight states, but club football in India is pseudo-
professional with a strong degree of amateurism.
Also, football, like most things in India, is run by politicians, who have wrested control of most
sports - the chief of the football federation now is the federal aviation minister. Lack of
professionalism, cronyism, indifference and politicisation is not letting the game thrive, so fans
have deserted it to root for their international heroes. Sponsors are indifferent because the quality
of the game is appalling.
In retrospect, it would appear that India was never serious about football the way it was about
cricket. The All India Football Federation, which runs the game in India, was formed in 1937,
but took more than a decade to get affiliated with FIFA, the world's apex football body. India
insisted on playing barefoot when other nations were putting their boots on and the game was
changing fast.
There have been occasional bursts of hope followed by darkness again. India's only football icon
of sorts is a not-so-young player called Baichung Bhutia from the small north-eastern state of
Sikkim. He was the first Indian player to sign up with an European Club and had an indifferent
three-year stint in the third tier of the English league. Bhutia brought some glamour and respect
back to the game in India, but what can one player do? Half a dozen foreign coaches have been
hired over the years to whip the national side into a competitive outfit, but nothing much has
happened.
So, India, sadly, remains an enthusiastic spectator without a team at the World Cup. As my
friend and writer, Indrajit Hazra, quips: "We don't have to paint like Leonardo to appreciate the
Mona Lisa. With World Cup football, too, we have mastered outsourcing our entertainment."

Home» June 2010» Cover Stories»Story

How to make India a football playing nation
Dino Morea Print Buzz up! E-mail
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The answer to the above
question is simple. Get
Indian football more
money. And some more
support. If BCCI’s coffers
are so full, why can’t they
share the wealth? I
believe it’s time for one
sport to support another.

As a game, football is
played and watched with
unadulterated passion,
and I believe we have that
in abundance. If certain things fall into place, football can undoubtedly be the
most popular sport in India.

I’ve been the face of Goa in the I-League, and have personally seen the sad state
of affairs. Even if the huge sums of money that are spent on IPL promotions are
instead directed towards Indian football, it could literally change the face of the
game in our country. We enjoy watching FIFA games even though we’re not
playing in them; just imagine the fervour if India was part of the competition.

Being a competitive footballer in school and university, I can vouch for the fact
that there is literally no better sport than this. It’s not only very entertaining, it’s
also the best fitness regimen one can follow.

What’s needed at this point is the initial push. It’s already almost a religion in
Kolkata and Goa, and the same can happen everywhere else. What’s needed is
investment of time, interest and money. Today, through this platform provided
to me by Men’s Health, I commit myself to the cause of football in India. If called
upon, I pledge to endorse, promote and even play to the best of my capability,
without any commercial considerations whatsoever.

I hope that by the next FIFA World Cup, I’ll be asked the following question
instead: “How do we make India a FIFA World Champion?” You can bet I’ll
have a ready answer for that as well!
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