WHY FOOTBALL ACADEMIES SHOULD BE THE WAY FORWARD FOR AIFF

In the past 10 years or so, the efforts of the AIFF have been primarily focussed on developing a professional league, inspired by the Japanese national football league, called "J-League". While the authorities have experimented with various ideas to nurture a similarly successful system in India, I think it is fair to say that the sum total of these efforts have not really taken Indian football to the upper echelons of the Asian football scene, leave alone world football.

In the 1950's, when the leaders of our nation set out to develop the Indian civilization, one of the first things that they did was to establish the Indian Institutes of Technology. The IITs were envisioned as centers of education that would produce engineers of the highest quality to contribute to the advancement of the nation. The mismatch of quality of the IIT graduates and the nature of opportunities available in India lead to a brain drain. But their overall contribution to cannot be overestimated. Indian football authorities should take a leaf out of this book.

Let us consider one of the main responsibilites of the AIFF - that India should have an excellent national team (NT). One of the ways to achieve this can be establishing and maintaining a national league, which serves as a supplier of players to the national team. This, until recently, was perhaps the only way to develop the NT. In the last 20 years or so, the rise in the quality of footballers playing for African NTs have introduced a new idea. During this period, African football has developed thanks primarily to a large portion of these players plying their trade in Europe. And not because of the development of strong national leagues. These footballers get their opportunities thanks mainly due to shady agents looking to make a quick buck. While I wouldnt recommend developing such a system in India, the AIFF can consider creating such opportunities for Indian footballers by developing football academies, with the intent of producing players of quality deemed good enough to play in some of the major European clubs. The number of Indians playing for major European clubs is a major indicator of the quality of the Indian NT.

These graduates can serve as definitive proof of an Indian's ability to play quality football, just like the IITs served as an advertisement of the Indian brain. As the incentive of playing for a European club far outweighs that of an Indian club, the number of Indian kids willing to consider a career in football would shoot up considerably. Also, the people who do not end up in Europe, can have the option to play in the Indian league, thereby increasing the quality of the league, given the quality of their footballing education.

While an Indian Clairefontaine might appear far fetched given the constrained circumstances the AIFF have to operate within, a few strides in that direction would do no harm.