A lighter look towards Indian football

Indian Football

While starting with the first post on my blog, bombardment of highly technical stuff about Indian football won’t help. So in this blog let me just fantasize about what developments we want to see in coming years. I know the word fantasize is a word used for too much of imagination, but the condition of the sport in the country do need a bit of fantasizing at this moment. Because someone has rightly said, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.”

So in this blog I will talk about the 5 basic changes which I want to see in the sport happening:

   1.       Organized I–League: Every country has its own league; the league in India has never seemed to be organized. So the first thing which must be changed is the way I-League is conducted. The league should become more professional and should make efforts to bring in both audience and investors. A proper league will bring in more competition and a much better fan following for the clubs. We must follow development models adopted by countries like China and Japan, where the sport is developing rapidly.

   2.       A competitive and better AIFF:  The chairman of AIFF, Praful Patel, has been same from past 3 years.  The condition of sport has not developed according to its potential but still there is no change in the leadership. So there must be a strong opposition party which will keep the administration on their toes.

  3.       Television rights and Branding: Branding of the sport is done in a very stereotyped manner. There are no efforts made by the organization to bring in more investors. The television rights of I league is given to Ten Action, but the quality in which the game is displayed make is look very tacky and boring. If we have to develop the game, we have to make it more popular. So branding and television rights should be targeted keenly and precisely.

  4.       Proper facilities and grass root developments: If we want the quality to be improved then the government should bring in proper training facilities and improved coaching staff for the players. In India there are very few grounds which meet FIFA standards. So it is highly unlikely to see good international matches played in the country. Grass root developments are very important because we cannot expect immediate changes in the sport at this moment. We have to look for a long term plan and grass root development can make things possible in coming years.

  5.       Club loyalty: I wish I could see people wearing jerseys of Sunil Chhetri rather than Cristiano Ronaldo. There is no love for the club both among the players and people. A player playing for Dempo FC does join Churchil Brothers, a rival club. I can never imagine Steven Gerrard playing for Manchester United and Ryan Giggs playing for Manchester City.  So one must stick to a single club and must work hard for the upbringing of the club. So lack of loyalty for clubs hampers the development of the sport and its credibility among the audience.

So these were the basic changes which I wish to see.  Realistically I cannot expect India to play world cup in coming 5 years, but till that time we can at least create a set of audience/fans that are eagerly waiting for the moment to arrive.