Can India achieve International Glory in Football?

Football is the most popular game in the world and as per FIFA survey 240 million people play football all over the world i.e. one in every 25. But the same ratio does not apply to Indian population in terms of football participation. Football is popular in this part of the world and India was a force in Asia till 1970. India won 1951 and 1962 Asian Games gold medals in football and won other major tournaments of Asia during that period. In the year 1956 India was fourth in Melbourne Olympics. That was the glorious past of Indian football.
Football standard world over is on the rise and at the same time Indian football standard is on decline since 1970 and the latest FIFA ranking places India on lowly 127. In the just concluded SAFF Cup at Dhaka, India could not maintain its superiority in the South Asian region and that put further question marks over standard of Indian football. India's poor performance at Dhaka may be due to hostile condition existed there in terms of poor officiating standard and favoritism to host country. But how Indian team can satisfy Indian fans the loss against Pakistan in the league phase? No doubt India has a very good professional coach in the form of Stephen Constantine, who knows A to Z of modern coaching in football. But the question is does he has the 11 vital ingredients in the form of players to act to his plan? The answer is big no. Indian team winning LG Cup at Vietnam was a major success last year i.e. 2002 and this is the only major international title India could achieve after a gap of three decades. Apart from this title India could hardly achieve anything substantial to show to the world that India is progressing. Indian football has a long way to travel to catch the world.
It is not that we can't develop our football standard. Certainly we can, provided we begin everything fresh. Our population, society, environment, etc., are all conducive for the development of football. Once Peter Velappan, General Secretary, Asian Football Confederation said, "India is a sleeping giant in football". That comment only reflects that we are not doing anything concrete to improve our football. Look at how African countries is coming-up? They are not blessed with sound economy, infrastructure, comfort, etc., still they are almost at par with the world standard. Why it so? It is just because of the interest, commitment, mass participation, popularity, etc., and no doubt that they are blessed with good physique and greater inclination towards the game. Latest African team to make a mark on world football is Senegal.
We don't lack football crazy fans but they want to see quality football and when most of the followers are blessed with satellite channels to witness the best quality football from all over the world than there are less takers for Indian football. The only way we can attract Indian people into this great game is by improving the quality of the game. To improve quality we need to work harder with a scientific program and with a professional delivery and management.
To develop complete proficiency in football techniques, training is must and that too one has to start very early in age. World over football training starts very early in age and it almost takes 10 to 12 years to develop all the faculties required for world class footballer i.e. by the age of 16 to 18 years players are fully prepared to take the world of football. It is generally said and witnessed in international football, if somebody fails to deliver in the age group of 16-18 years one has a little chance to grow higher in international football. Take the example of three time FIFA player of the year (1996, 1997 and 2002) Ronaldo. He was in the national team at the age of 18 years to deliver the best and not to forget the king of football, Pele scored 2 goals in the finals of 1958 World Cup in the same age. India on the other hand didn't have any concrete programme to develop the same international class players. One or two football academies functioning in isolation will not yield any significant result. So we have to do what the world is doing and certainly we can be a power at least in Asia in next 15 years if we start today.
First and foremost thing what we have to do is to promote the game into every look and corner of the country with a sound programme and planning. We have the right kind of network in the capacity of District Football Associations (DFA's) and its affiliated units to take the game into every corner of the country. But certainly we have to activate this DFA's in real term. To get into the grass-root All India Football Federation at the earliest must form a policy and programme for grass-root training. After the formation of policy and programme every DFAs should be directed to implement the programme in different coaching centers. Every district should have under - 6, under - 8, under - 10, under - 12, under-14 and under-16 coaching programme and at each coaching center 50 to 100 boys/girls should be trained.
DFAs in order to start coaching programme at grass-roots must approach selective schools, which have minimum infrastructure and sport environment. DFAs will not be able to start a coaching programme of its own due to financial and infrastructure crunch, therefore they should work in conjunction with schools, private organisations, football clubs, industries and colleges. All the technical manpower and coaching programme must come from DFAs as prescribed by AIFF, Technical Department from time to time. Therefore, AIFF at the earliest should divide the administration into different faculties so as to manage and administer football in a very professional manner. Creation of technical wing is of paramount importance in this regard. At least 10 schools in each district should be covered with this programme. All the clubs affiliated to DFAs and State Football Association (SFA) should be directed to start coaching programme for under - 6 to under - 19 age groups in a compulsory basis, just like European and South American Clubs (there most of the clubs have under -6 to under - 19 coaching programme). All the coaching centers must adopt uniform coaching programme for particular age group so as to get best collective result.
Apart from coaching programme DFAs should organise under - 16 and under - 19 leagues in every district. For under - 8 and under - 10 skill competitions, and for under - 12 and under - 14 small sided games (5-a- side or 7-a-side) should be organised. Special tournaments and games should be organised for colleges and universities. Than in turn all state associations should organise similar type of leagues for seniors and juniors. State associations also need to open up football academies at least one in each state. But the opening of academies should be based on the availability of talents, finance (funding), infrastructure, technical manpower and scientific backing. Following above guidelines will result in producing quality football players and spreading the game into remote corners of the country and thus football will become popular throughout India. Lets hope of better future for Indian football.