What ails Indian football

Despite the recent football frenzy in India surrounding the World Cup, Indian football remains the proverbial sleeping giant as FIFA and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) officials have often stated.
It is the most popular spectator sport at the domestic level. A record 131,000 people witnessed the KBL-Federation Cup semi-final between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan in July 1997 at the Salt Lake stadium in Kolkata. In places like Kolkata, Goa, Manipur, Kerala and even Delhi and Bangalore, crowds of 25,000-30,000 frequently witness domestic matches involving the top clubs of the country or when the national team is in action.
Despite such a massive following and the commencement of the National Football League (NFL) in 1997, Indian football has not evolved into a professional game, as in other Asian countries like Japan, South Korea or the Gulf nations.
In Japan, the J-League started in 1993 and their football has improved rapidly. Japan has qualified for three successive World Cups (1998, 2002 and 2006) and been Asia Cup champions in 2000 and 2004. Proper marketing and professional administration has led to a social revolution of football in Japan, with the emergence of community supported football clubs.
A spin-off industry for J-League merchandise exploded, which included 1,700 branded products. The money involved in new facilities and sponsorship deals was in the region of 700 million pounds. Clubs owned their own stadiums, with modern gymnasiums and shops to sell merchandise.
None of the Indian clubs own their own stadiums and only a handful have easy access to modern gymnasiums, even though the NFL is in its 10th edition. Venues for the NFL are leased from local municipal authorities. The clubs pay lip service to youth development and rely on foreign imports. All the 10 clubs in the 10th NFL had three foreigners in key positions like strikers, central defenders or midfielder.
The NFL has not caught the public imagination in India. In the ninth NFL, in which there were 12 teams, playing 132 matches on a home and away basis, total attendance was just 75,000, with an average of 5,700. These figures swelled because of the traditional Mohun Bagan-East Bengal rivalry, with crowds of 60,000 and 55,000 attending both the matches.
Coverage of the NFL in national dailies is also tawdry. The NFL only gets intensive coverage in regional newspapers in Goa, West Bengal and in Kerala, when a team from that state is playing in the league.
Indian football is not languishing for lack of money. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) signed a 10-year Rs.2.73 billion television deal with Zee Sports last season and a seven-year deal with Nike to supply the national team with apparel, footwear and equipment. ONGC the title sponsors of the NFL pays the AIFF Rs.75 million per annum.
There are also annual grants from FIFA, for development of the game. The annual budgets of the top NFL clubs like Mahindra United, East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Dempo ranges from Rs.20 to 35 million. About a 100 Indian players earn over Rs. 500,000 per season. Top-stars like Baichung Bhutia, S. Venkatesh, Mahesh Gawli and Alvito D'Cunha get paid in the range of Rs.15-25 million per annum.
Unlike cricket, football has not been marketed efficiently, so the NFL has not really re-vitalised club football in India. Thus instead of growing popularity, football in India is confined to a few states, West Bengal, Goa, Kerala, the northeastern states and small areas in Mumbai and Delhi. Traditionally strong areas of football like Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai have declined due to inefficient management by the state associations, absence of youth development and vote bank politics of the AIFF.
Another paradox of Indian football is underachievement at the international level. For over a decade, 1951 to 1964, India were among the best in Asia, winning the Asian Games gold medal twice in 1951 in Delhi and 1962 in Jakarta. Twice India finished second (in 1959 and 1964) in the prestigious Merdeka football tournament in Kuala Lumpur and were runners up in the Asia Cup at Israel in 1964.
During this time span, India finished fourth in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and was the first Asian nation to reach the Olympic football semi final. In 1956, India beat Australia 4-2 in the quarterfinals, with a hat trick by centre forward Neville D'Souza - the first by an Asian in the Olympics.
From 1948-1960, India played regularly and with distinction in every Olympics. India also won the Quadrangular tournament contested between India, Burma, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, four times from 1952-55.
However, in the recent past, successes have been limited. Since 1960, India has not qualified for the Olympics. India has never qualified for the World Cup finals. Since 1984 India has not made it to the Asia Cup final rounds. The last quarterfinal appearance in the Asian Games was in 1982 at Delhi. The only achievements in the last 36 years were a bronze medal in the 1970 Bangkok Asian Games and the Indian junior team was joint winners with Iran in the Asian Youth championships in 1974.
Since the mid-1980s, India has won the South Asia Federation (SAF) Games gold medal thrice, in 1985 at Dhaka, 1987 at Calcutta and 1995 at Chennai and the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) championships four times in 1993 in Lahore, 1997 in Kathmandu, 1999 in Goa and 2005 in Karachi. However, India's domination at the South Asian level is not as pronounced as during the Quadrangular tournament phase in the 1950s.
Earlier many of India's top footballers were among the best in Asia.
Jarnail Singh, Chuni Goswami, P.K. Banerjee, T. Balaram, Peter Thangaraj, Arun Ghosh, Noor Mohammed, Aziz, Altaf Ahmed and Yusuf Khan to name a few have played for the Asian All Stars XI. Right back Sudhir Karmakar was chosen the Best Defender in Asia when India came third in the 1970 Bangkok Asiad.
Since 1982, India has hired nine foreign coaches but quality players have been very few. Thus there are no Indian heroes for the young players to emulate. India's current foreign coach, Englishman Bob Houghton, has indirectly admitted the paucity of football talent in the country by stating that it is imperative to look for talent among taller and stronger NRIs in Europe or Canada.
Arbitrary selection, inadequate fitness levels, insufficient international exposure and scant attention to age-group teams have been the bane of Indian football.
To improve standards, countries like US, Saudi Arabia and South Korea play about 25 international matches per year. India barely plays 10 matches a year. Prior to the 1998 Asian Games, held at Bangkok in December, India did not play a single practise match from September 1997 till November 1998.
To promote game at the grassroots, the AIFF has instructed all the NFL clubs to put in place a youth development programme but only lip service is paid to such projects. Efforts are being made to start a professional league in the 2007-08 season but it is to be seen if the clubs can get fully professional like owning their own stadiums within two years. A national football academy is also on the anvil. With help from FIFA, the AIFF headquarters was set up in Delhi last year with a fully paid staff to monitor the development of the game in the country.
Professional management, better marketing, greater attention to the national team and broad-basing the game in different states to utilise India's advantage of population, are required for Indian football to live up to its mass popularity.