Yesterday India drew with Qatar and thereby the London dream ends. In the first leg of this tie India were rather unorganized and paid the penalty by losing the match by the scoreline 3-1. Although Jeje had scored a crucial away goal but the pathetic performance of the defenders meant India went on to lose the match. Yesterday match showed a definite improvement in their performance but not enough to earn them a spot in next round of qualifications for London Olympics 2012.
We now take a look at reasons why India have failed to qualify for Olympics since 1960 where they lost all of their 3 matches in group stages.
1. Infrastructure
Today India are struggling to qualify for top notch FIFA competitions and it is hard to imagine that India were once a team feared in Asia. Indians were used to be known as “The Brazilians of Asia” due to flair and dribbling skills. While the Indians went to a deep sleep after 1960, the sport picked up it pace particularly in the West. Other countries particularly in Europe developed some quality infrastructure and turned professional. There are plenty of World Class stadiums in each of the top ranked nations. Each clubs has their own training ground(which contains additional fields) and stadiums while our clubs find it hard to have their own training grounds and stadiums. The stadiums which are there fail to pass the AFC criteria(this is normal standard required to hold AFC Champions League matches)
2. Professionalism
In India the domestics league is still in nascent state and are in between amateurism and professionalism. The league matches are held in hot afternoons and in poor quality stadiums. There is no basic arrangements for fans such as quality sanitary, quick transport after matches, seats etc
3. Coaches
There are not enough number of coaches(with necessary coaching badges) who can manage a club or train the youth. Those that are there do not have enough experience(with a few exceptions) in the top flight. There are many young Indians who are there willing to go to coaching but do not know the necessary path and conditions.
4. Marketing and Sponsoring
AIFF needs to market the game properly so that it can properly spread throughout India which in turn get the attention of business men who would be willing to invest their money. Mostly the I-League(the domestic league) consists of teams from two regions i.e. Bengal and Goa. Recently due to clubs such as JCT FC closing down we have already many strongholds of Indian football and some are near extinction(places like Kerala and Karnataka). AIFF clearly needs a new strategy to market Indian football and make the availability of tickets for the matches of national team more easily available.
5. Youth System
There is no proper youth structure through which a young player can come through.An average youth player starts its training when they can start to walk while in India they start at the age of 15 this results in lower time of training. The youth players by the time the reach the age of 24 the lack in total training time and playing experience since clubs do not give enough chances to their young player and depend on average foreigners which result in lowering the overall level of the player from other countries.
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hllo every one..m avisek a final yr architecture studnt…n m mad fr football.bt m its really shame to us tht world’s second largest populatn countrys,s poor conditn of footbal..so i have decided to do mah thesis on updration of indian footbal & makin world class academy.so frindz plz give me ur views of reason of india’s poor condition.n also wht is need toh indian players to perform world class & also updrade the skill n stamina of footballer.plz gives me ur importnt view..thnx
I live in Canada now but I played all my football in India:school, district,state,nationals university, 1st div in pune, you name it, back in late 80’s and 90’s. I bet you the situation (infracture) is as pathetic now as it was then. They make you run like horses but feed you like dogs. Where’s the budget. It vanishes before it even gets to the players. I coach my daughter’s U-10 gold team presently and you’ve got to see to believe how the sport is conducted even at this young level in this part of the world; professional coaches,turf fields, practising late evenings under flood lights, kids everywhere, camps all around,kids wearing proper kits and last but not the least each team having atleast 10 soccer balls. It all starts at the grassroots. Get corruption and politics out of the system and hopefully somebody shows up for the sake of the game and the country!!! Until then GOODBYE!!!
Virk, I can understand how frustrating it wud have been for you during that period. But things are very different now. Players are well taken care of and the national team is being provided with a lot of comfort and care. Although the set-up is not completely professional, it is changing for better.
India went in to the Qatar games without playing any friendlies to ramp-up. Thats suicide basically. The first game acted as a ramp-up to 2nd where we almost one. In fact We improved greatly in 2nd game. This shows India would have had a great chance to go through the next round if they had ramped up with 2 quality international friendlies before playing Qatar (Qatar ramped up with 3 friendlies). This is the main learning..If India is serious about giving its best in international competions they need to follow my “1-2-3 Friendly Guideline”.. ..Which is ideally ramp up with 3 friendies in the ideal case, 2 friendlies in the OK case..but at the very least even a single friendly can make a big difference. Zero friendlies before a competitive event is nothing more than suicide
I would disagree with the title of the blog. I dont think this was yet another disappointment. Rather the way we played was quite confidence-inspiring. We were the better side in the game and more chances. Its just that these are early days. I would say AIFF’s youth development is showing at least some positive signs