Indian national team without enough international friendlies

Indian National Team

 The scenario of a sport in any country can be understood just by looking at its position in the international ranking table. As per the latest update, India is 145^th in FIFA rankings. The neighboring countries like China (95) and Japan (37) are way ahead of us. The shocker was that the countries like Afghanistan (139) and Tajikistan (114) were also ahead of us. The ranks of neighboring countries do not make me feel jealous, but for purely many “footballing reasons” it worries me.

The only way to increase the standings is by playing international matches on every given FIFA dates. Last international match India played was on March 6 2013, against Myanmar in AFC Challenge Cup. If we look at the below given table, India has just played 5 international matches in last 11 months. FIFA even refused to accept the match played against Cameroon (B) as a valid one.

 India went unprepared and lost the AFC challenge cup against lower ranked teams like Myanmar and Bangladesh, which resulted in disqualification from 2015 Asia Cup.  

Opponent	Opponent teams rank	Date	Result
Myanmar	165	March 6, 2013	Lost 1-0
Guam	177	March 4, 2013	Won 4-0
Chinese Taipei	176	March 2, 2013	Won 2-1
Palestine	150	February 6. 2013	Lost 4-2
Cameroon (B)	NA	September 2, 2012	Won 2 (4)vs. 2 (5)

    

The current national team coach, Win Kovermans, has repeatedly reiterated the importance of playing international matches in FIFA dates, but AIFF has failed to fulfill his requests. The other major issue is the quality of opponents we face; all the 5 teams mentioned above are ranked below India according to FIFA. Even a positive result against them won’t help the rankings to come up, but it is definitely good to start with.

The consistency of playing on FIFA dates and increase in the ranking is important for many reasons. The impact can be seen in three different forms:

• Investment: If we look at the current national team, they do not have any shirt sponsors. The corporate houses are not ready to invest because the team hardly plays any matches in international arena.       
• Players: As per the rules of many European countries, players of lower ranked teams are not provided with a work permit. So as per the current ranking, Indian players cannot represent any European clubs.
• Team: Currently the national team squad spends very less time together and hence there seems to be very less coordination among players.   

New national team jersey without sponsor

India is about to play a friendly against Tajikistan on 14^th August, followed by SAFF cup in September 2013. So I hope the trend continues and AIFF start providing quality opponents on every international FIFA dates. This move will also increase the viewership for Indian football.

(I request everyone to watch the match against Tajikistan and also support India in the SAFF cup.) 

Tajik promo for the Tajikistan vs India international friendly on Wednesday, August 14 in Khujand!

I-League clubs and Social Media

I league clubs using social media

I League, the national football league of India, have never been able to reach to a national level till now. It is true that they have received an ample amount of sympathy and commitment from the government for taking the league to the next level. So knowing the pace at which the government works it will suicidal for the clubs to be solely dependent on AIFF.

The football lovers in India like to read more about Manchester United than our very own Mohun Bagan. Reach and popularity being the major issue, why can’t the clubs by themselves make some moves to reach the people. There are various social platforms through which a sporting entity can receive both attention and publicity. Social media platforms being absolutely free and a shopping mall filled with potential audience is the best place to start with. This medium can be a great alternative to reach out to the youth to encourage participation and viewership.  Let us have a look at some of the clubs using social media sites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

I have shortlisted 6 top clubs for this study, namely Churchill Brothers, Dempo FC, Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, Pune FC and Shillong Lajong.

Facebook Stats:

Club name	Total Followers	Average posts per day	People talking about it	Rating for their about us page ( 1to 5)
East Bengal	897,256	4	11,662	3
Mohun Bagan	59,990	5	12,308	4
Pune FC	55,329	6	1,150	3
Shillong Lajong	73,197	6	4,121	2
Dempo FC	7,408	1	85	1
Churchill Brothers	2,777	2	222	1

Twitter Stats:

Club name	Total Followers	Average tweets  per day	Total tweets
East Bengal	2,261	3	1,758
Mohun Bagan	1,773	3	5,599
Pune FC	2,153	6	5,241
Shillong Lajong	650	3	1,399
Dempo FC	NA	NA	NA
Churchill Brothers	791	3	1,269

YouTube Stats:

Club name	Total Subscribers	Total videos posted	Total views
East Bengal	26	6	4,315
Mohun Bagan	31	27	5,970
Pune FC	324	371	121,029
Shillong Lajong	116	51	20,753
Dempo FC	NA	NA	NA
Churchill Brothers	NA	NA	NA

As the numbers are crystal clear, I will not explain it further. The point I want to make is, if newly formed clubs like Pune FC and Shillong Lajong can work towards developing their online presence why can’t other clubs do. All the other clubs have failed to create an impactful social media existence. 

It is easy to follow the rhetoric that government does not do anything, but it is important that the clubs do something upfront to attract audiences. Indian Football clubs need to tighten up their screws to be more creative and follow on the path of big clubs like Manchester United and Chelsea to increase awareness around Indian Football. 

Social media is a free platform and the clubs must definitely take extra efforts in exploring the benefits out of it. The experts say that the country has bright prospects for football, so it is ‘better late than never'.