The Indian football crisis

Indian football is in a crisis. That may be an understatement considering that the sport has been in a dormant state for some time and hardly inspired confidence in the vast number of followers in the country. Football used to be a passion, like it is to its fans the world over. Considered the most popular sport in the world, football in India is just the antithesis of that, most disconcertingly. The situation is such that there are no backers for the sport, and all that remains is just hope that something miraculous will happen to set a revival mode! If a young aspiring talent kicks a football today, he could be pardoned if he does so not to reflect his soaring ambition, perhaps, but to convey his disgust in having taken up a sport that, as of now, looks without a future.

Things may still change for the better, for surely football in India cannot be driven or hidden away like that. Not after the sport had such a lively past. We have had stalwarts from the fifties and sixties, considered the golden age of Indian football. A barefoot Indian national team making France work hard for a victory in the 1948 Olympics is another memorable snippet from history. From there started off a phase that scripted a glorious chapter that included India’s conquest of gold in the Asian games and a spectacular fourth-place finish in the 1958 Melbourne Olympics.

Many more accolades followed, and the country doted on the great showings of players like P K Banerjee, Tulsidas Balaram, and Chuni Goswami. Add to that names like Sailen Manna, Jarnail Singh, Inder Singh, and many more, to the near current times when I M Vijayan, Bhaichung Bhutia, Sathyan, and the like strode on majestically. The last big name, perhaps, has to be Sunil Chhetri, who recently decided to finally leave the scene after having come back from retirement for a brief period.

So, the sport has never been without performers in every era, but that trend perhaps has taken a dip, and the reasons are there for everyone to see. The world over, it has been the national league, as FIFA recommended, that has been the vehicle to bring progress in football. Japan in Asia is a prime example, and indeed, when India was all set to launch its version of the national league in the late nineties, it was expected that the J-League would be the inspiring story of progress. Decades have passed, and aside from I leagues, there is also the ISL to add glamour, but where has Indian football gone? From one slip to another and after umpteen changes of national coaches, the country’s football standards have not only fallen, but the sport itself has left little to enthuse even a diehard fan. India’s FIFA ranking has slipped to the 130s, and there is nothing to show that things will turn around in the near future.

The system has to change is one view that some top footballers of the past subscribe to. The ISL and the I-leagues are fine, as far as football fare is considered, but do they really improve the skills of the Indian talents who make it to the various clubs? Hardly any Indian player gets the opportunity to make it to the main positions on the football field since they are taken away by foreign recruits! So how do skills improve? There is money now, and players get paid well, even Crores, but for all this, do they evolve into talents who could be of use for the national team is the grave question. Clubs have their priorities, and it is a moot point if helping in building a strong and vibrant national team can be one of them! Otherwise, with no other notable football activity around to match the national leagues, we would not be pining on the kind of calamity that has befallen Indian football.

Even in these difficult times, there are still positives. If there is one reason to believe that the love for the sport is not all lost or that the eagerness to witness throbbing football matches is still there, then look no further than Kerala! A state where once tournaments brought in gala times, today is trying to replicate that scenario with the Kerala Super League, a six-team franchise football league with a strong commercial backing. From Kannur to Thiruvananthapuram stretches this home and away league event drawing overflowing crowds to the stadiums. A source from the state, a keen footballer himself, had this to state, “It is a scene from the past, the mile-long queues for matches, the roars that the spectators raise, well, everything is there, be it Kannur, Kozhikode, Thrissur, Malappuram or Kochi.” With the name of a district attached to each team, the competition gets an extra edge. Each team has players, more from within and some from outside the state, aside from a sprinkling from overseas. All in all, an initiative just in its second year and aimed at improving football at the grassroots level, as the organisers, the Kerala Football Association, portray it as promising to rock.

Will this influence other football-rich states? Already, there is talk of Bengal launching a similar Bengal Super League without much delay. Steps like that can do one thing for sure: get the crowds back to football grounds and raise the sport’s image. What follows thereafter has to be positive, unlike the uncertainties that have marred the football scenario now. Whatever happens to the ISL or the I leagues, this much is certain: there are ways to keep football activities alive, and in the end, that is what matters.