SAFF Cup postponement allows time for rethink

With seven rounds of the 6th edition of the National Football League completed, we have enough data to evaluate the present state of Indian Football. Fortunately too, the SAFF Tournament has been postponed. Because, given the selection of the squad for the tournament, the Indian National Team might have found itself on to a hiding to nothing. And slipping even lower in the FIFA World rankings, where it is precariously perched at No. 121 out of a total strength of 203. Not least because India's entire defense, consisting of Dipak Mondal and Mahesh Gawali, midfield consisting of Jo Paul Anchery and strike force consisting of Baichung Bhutia are all injured ! Even apart from this, India would have committed suicide had the SAFF Cup been held as scheduled.

For starters, the coaches who were most likely to be entrusted with the job of winning back the SAFF Cup for India, were Naeemudin, who hasn't coached a top Club for at least 4 years and Sukhvinder Singh who is coaching NFL bottom feeders JCT Mills. Sukhi, is an affable fellow. But affability may not be the only qualification required to bolster the prospects of the National team. In fact, Sukhvinder's JCT Mills find themselves scarping the bottom of the NFL for the second year in succession. Last season, they managed to avoid relegation when Sukhi was on India duty, preparing for the World Cup qualifiers and assistant coach Parminder Singh can be credited with picking up the Punjabi club side from the morass to narrowly avoid relegation. With the next World Cup qualifiers three years away, India should be looking to groom a younger team with a more qualified coach. And the appointment of the Coach should be based on merit ( read qualification plus proven ability to deliver results ) and not age ! One would expect that if at all a domestic coach should be the national coach, Savio Madeira of Salgaocar Sports Club would have been the front runner, followed closely by Derrick Pereira of Vasco and Armando Colaco of Dempo. Marcus Pacheco, though having the highest qualification, would be out of the running because he doesn't have a top team to train. Still, he would be streets ahead of Naeem, who has no qualification whatsoever.

Indian Football has time and again been gnashing its teeth over the vexed question of whether or not foreigners should be allowed to play for Indian Clubs. As usual, everyone has his own opinion. Sadly, these opinions are based on very little hard evidence and border usually on conjecture and sometimes on misinformation.

Let us try and analyse first of all whether foreigners should at all be allowed to play for Indian Clubs. Put simply, the question is whether India NEEDS foreigners. The answer to this question hinges upon whether there are enough domestic players of reasonable quality in India to sustain the requirements of the NFL Teams, which number 12 in the First Division and about 18 in the Second Division. Apart from these there may be another 10 teams in the country where a modicum of decent football is attempted to be played in competition. Hence in terms of numbers alone, we are looking of a pool of say 1000 players of reasonable quality to maintain the momentum of Indian football in State as well as the national Football League. Can anyone name more than 100 Indian players of reasonable quality ? If not, then Indian Football NEEDS foreign players to sustain its domestic competitions, since the country doesn't have enough of its own.

The obvious retort to this is why does India not have more than 100 reasonably good players. And again the answer is that we don't have any reasonably good coaches who will form reasonably good players from a reasonably young age. Even the TFA, which is the most outstanding factory to produce good players in the country, starts the player development very late... after the player has attained the age of 15. And even these players disappear from the football arena prematurely. Perhaps it stems from the fact that the coaches they encounter after their TFA training are themselves inadequate and unable to sustain the continuous development that needs to be given to a player once formed. On the other hand, TFA may need to re-examine its process of recruitment and try and evaluate players for their mental toughness before they are inducted to the Academy and rely less on recommendation based on technical ability alone.

Thankfully the All India Football Federation has embarked on a process for training Coaches through the AFC programme. However, so far only two have got teams to coach at the top flight in Indian football. And both these are with Goan teams and presently heading the League. Perhaps the management of the other teams ought to open their eyes and make use of the coaches already trained and put them to good use in raising the quality of Indian football. But, conversely it is time for the AIFF to ask the Clubs to recommend their coaches for the AFC Coaching License programme or at least recommend trained Coaches to the top Clubs through the State Associations. Better still, the AIFF should encourage and further develop these Licensed coaches by giving them appointments with national squads including the age group teams.

Having discovered that Indian Football NEEDS many more players of reasonable quality than it presently has, the question arises about how imperative and urgent the need is. First of all, low quality players means a low standard of football. One must accept that in today's socio-economic scenario, paying spectators want to see some quality football else they will find better ways of getting themselves entertained. As a direct result, they will stay away from the NFL and other domestic tournaments. Empty stands do not encourage sponsorship and a downward spiral will begin, wherein the game in India needs money to sustain itself, but is unable to raise the money due to poor standards, lack of spectator interest and sponsors. On the other hand, Indian football will revert to the old hegemony. The four richest Clubs in India will corner all the reasonably good domestic players and be invited for and win all the major tournaments and prize money, thereby perpetuating their invincibility. In the long run, all other Football Clubs in India will shut up shop and disappear into the archives of ancient history, unless, of course, they are run by government institutions.

And the foreigners playing in Indian football have definitely lived up to their billing. FIFA says that every team should play to win. Winning, as we all know is not possible in football without scoring goals. A quick analysis of the NFL will point to the fact that the top goal scorers are foreign players, viz., Rui Wanderley Weis (Vasco), Raja Baliev Nurlan (HAL), and Kenneth Onu (ITI), all with four goals apiece. The only Indian player in this rarefied atmosphere is Praveen Kumar of Punjab Police. Praveen's team, Punjab Police is the most porous in the League, having conceded 10 goals in 7 matches and is joined by compatriots JCT Mills who are presently propping up the League table. This only goes to emphasize the fact that this striker is scoring against defenses far superior to that in his own team. And this lad hadn't even been called for the camp for the now postponed SAFF tournament.

Following closely on the heels of the above mentioned foursome are Jose Barreto (Mohun Bagan) Suley Musah and Omolaja Olalekan (both of East Bengal) with three goals each. Khalid Jamil (Mahindra United) and VP Shaji (FC Kochin) keep these foreigners company. Surely Shaji should be given an opportunity to try out for India. Roque Barreto and Noel Wilson (Churchill Brothers), regulars for the National Squad trials, have two goals apiece and keeping good company to foreigners Austin Akolo (Mahindra), A. Seriki (Mohun Bagan) and Abul Akim Alem (Tollygunge). Although as also H.S. Gill (JCT Mills ), Satish Minz and Peter Rodrigues of Vasco are up there with the same number of strikes, these three have never been considered even remotely as candidates to represent India. Instead, below form and aging IM Vijayan and utter failure R.C. Prakash, whose name doesn't even figure among the goal scorers in the present NFL after seven rounds has been called up for national duty. And this despite playing for Mohun Bagan alongside Jose Barreto who is by far one of the best playmakers in the League.

Inclusion of the foreign players has caused a balance within the team structure to be achieved. Their recruitment is generally based upon the deficiencies in each team. In India, the major defects in the teams are in the positions of forwards, playmakers, defenders and goalkeepers - largely due to unavailability of sufficient and sufficiently good domestic players. This gap is being plugged by the introduction of foreigners. The foreigners have also helped to raise the standard of the domestic players. This has made the 6th edition of the NFL more competitive than ever and the local players are being forced to give 100 %. Also they are improving their technical capabilities in order to match that of their foreign colleagues as well as foreign opponents. The upshot of all this can equate to India having a much better National team than it has had previously.

In many ways, the NFL, by allowing the use of foreign players has helped balance the playing field for all participating teams. Thanks to the National Football League, Clubs who would never get an invitation to the richest tournaments in India have been given an opportunity to display their wherewithal at the premier tournament in India. More important is that the terms and conditions are the same for all the participating teams. And every team has a fair crack at the title and the resulting huge prize money. The encouragement provided by this factor has caused many teams to re-invest in football and rebuild their squads. This accounts for the rise and rise of teams like HAL and ITI of Bangalore and Vasco Sports Club of Goa. It also accounts for the resurgence of Dempo Sports Club in Goa, whose frenzied rebuilding programme will hopefully see the team in the next edition of the NFL.

The end result is the most competitive League in the world. And the quality is reasonably high. Now it is up to the spectators to register their approval and turn up for the matches. It is also up to Doordarshan to accord a higher priority to football by covering the key matches in each round for the benefit of the Indian public. And for the AIFF to seize the initiative and go for World Cup qualification in 2006!