Football standards the world over is on the rise and at the same time Indian football is on the decline for and has been for the past three decades. Latest FIFA world rankings place India a lowly 127th. It is not that football is not popular in this part of the world. Football has a great fan following in India but people are not happy with the quality of Indian football because these days people get to see the English Premier League, Spanish League and other world leagues live in their living rooms in India. When they compare Indian football with the standards of the above they find Indian football is in a very poor state and that keeps the majority of football fans away from Indian football.
India was a force in Asia till 1970. India won the 1951 and 1962 Asian Games gold medals in football and won other major tournaments of Asia during the same period. In the year 1956 India finished fourth in the Melbourne Olympics. After the above achievements India hardly achieved anything substantial in Asia and only maintains its superiority in the South Asian region where competition is far below Asia as a whole.
It is quite astonishing to see a country with a population of over 1 billion finding it difficult to produce a team to at least match Asian standards. India has a huge potential to develop its football standard to the world level but there are hardly any sincere efforts and programs to turn the potential into reality. Only two years ago Peter Velappan, General Secretary of the Asian Football Confederation said, "India is a sleeping giant in football". That statement only indicates that India is not doing enough to improve its football standard.
In order to improve football standards in India the National Football League was introduced in the year 1996 for the first time in the history of Indian football. At present the 7th edition of league is in progress between 12 leading clubs of the country on a home and away basis. But so far the league has failed to attract Indian masses due to lot of reasons. First and foremost is the lack of professionalism in the conduct of the league from All India Football Federation. The league has certainly given a boost to club football in India but clubs in India lack basic infrastructure and professionalism. India has a few century old clubs like Mohan Bagan and Mohmmedan Sporting, which were formed in the years 1888 and 1889 respectively. These clubs have a huge fan following through out the country but so far these clubs have not learnt the basics of professionalism to compete with the best in Asia let alone the world. Clubs in India hardly pay any attention to grooming their own talents and therefore they hardly invest on youth development. That results in considerable erosion of local talents from football. Big clubs in India mostly depend on foreign players to strike success and in turn they recruit foreign players mostly from Nigeria, Ghana, Brazil and other African countries and at present there are more than 60 foreign players playing for different clubs in India. Foreign players playing in India are not of international class and most of them are filling up the numbers rather than contributing anything significant to Indian football. Clubs are ignoring youth development programs due to a lack of a clear-cut policy from football's governing body in India, the All India Football Federation.
Football talent exists in India but the majority of them are untapped due to a lack of grass-root coaching programs throughout the country. Football's brightest star in India at present is Baichung Bhutia, who spent three years with Bury FC, a second division club in England. The striker could not find success there because of frequent injuries and lack of proper preparation to play at that level before departing for England. He came back last year and joined the big club Mohan Bagan. But he is a big boost to upcoming stars in India and very much a role model in Indian football.
Before the start of the National Football League clubs used to engage in different tournaments organised by the football federation and other organisations. The oldest tournament in India is the Durand Cup, which was started in the year 1888 and it has the distinction of being the second oldest tournament in the world after England's FA Cup. This month only the latest edition of the Durand Cup took place at India's capital New Delhi and was won by East Bengal Football Club, Calcutta, the club formed in the year 1920.
Calcutta a city situated in the eastern side of India is the major center for football in India. Top Indian clubs are situated there and the local state association came into existence in the year 1893 before the formation of All India Football Federation in 1937. The local state association is called the Indian Football Association, which controls football in one state, Bengal. Mohan Began, Mohammaden Sporting, and East Bengal clubs belong to Calcutta. Similarly every state in India has its local association but only few state associations are actively promoting football. Big clubs in India are not scattered throughout the country and belong to only four states. Rest of the states of India have very low profile clubs and football at these states hardly attracts any attention. The misery is that the All India Football Federation has not planned anything serious for the promotion of these low profile clubs from other states. Second division leagues are organised just to fill the two spots of relegated teams from the main division. The Second division is a mere formality rather than a serious venture. The All India Football Federation conducts only two divisions in the National Football League. Every state association in turn have their own league but apart from few states the rest only complete formalities of organising leagues in their respective states and sometime the state league matches last only a single week. Goa, Kerala, Manipur and Bengal these are the states were league matches are conducted in a serious manner and football is very much popular in these parts of India.
India winning the LG Cup at Vietnam last year (2002) was the first major achievement of an Indian team after a gap of almost 30 years. The victory at Vietnam was possible due to the new coach, Stephen Constantine, an Englishman who took over the job in 2002 and added a new dimension to the Indian team by his team selection, focused on coaching and player management. So far he has been doing a great job for Indian football and team results speak his worth. Hope that in the long run he will be able to help Indian football in more than one way by his experience and knowledge in changing the set-up for the better future.
When one looks into the overall scenario of Indian football one can clearly find that India has to travel miles to meet the international elite. The need of the hour is a complete overhauling of the system in India at every level of football. All the departments of the game need to be tackled in a professional manner and nothing can boost Indian football other than the introduction of full professionalism. Hope that in the coming years better sense will prevail with a change of mindset and work ethic in India and we all will be able to see Indian football reaching its true potential.