I have seen lot of people (adults) in societies play box-cricket, working people playing cricket tournaments (in-house) once in a while, but most of these adults rarely play football. On the other hand, young kids (school students), youngsters are more interested in playing football. Even girls are showing lot of interest football. Going by the trend, football could soon catch up with cricket in India.
Schools are witnessing growing popularity of football among children. “There is greater coverage of football than cricket. Only a certain number of children are very good at cricket. In soccer, you can be a good player at so many positions as such, so everyone gets a greater chance to participate,” says Ryan Pinto, CEO of Ryan International. Ryan International runs over 125 schools in India and has around 1.25 lakh kids in its school who play football.
India used to be a force to reckon with in Asian football till the early 1970s, before things started bleak. Indian football head coach Igor Stimac feels India must work towards becoming a recognised force in Asian football once again. “We have the obligation to work in favour of National Football in India. Everyone is equally responsible to do everything possible in its development and securing its better future. The football family including the fans, mass media, all clubs, marketing sponsors and AIFF need to work together to make India a recognised force in Asian football again. Football is a team work, both on and off the field.”
Here are some of the positive developments concerning football in India.
- The FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017 was held in India. The first ever FIFA event hosted by India ever was played in six cities — New Delhi, Navi Mumbai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Kochi and Margao.
- Arsenal plans to launch official Arsenal Soccer Schools across India.
- Liverpool has a residential football coaching academy that trains players up to age 18. The academy conducts trials every year in India.
- Real Madrid Foundation has set up a social and sports academy in Kolkata.
- Baichung Bhutia’s (India’s most famous football player) soccer schools have seen a rapid rise in interest among school kids in recent times.
- Rupert Murdoch and Mukesh Ambani-promoted Indian Super League (ISL) will only make the game more popular in future. According to the ISL charter, every team in ISL will have to spend a certain amount of money on building a grassroots ecosystem for football in India.
Indian Football Association (IFA) general secretary Utpal Ganguli said: “If there has to be one league in India, it has to involve Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting. There’s also discussions with various stakeholders as to how the ISL and the I-League can be merged.
Bengal, once considered the Mecca of soccer in India is having trouble producing good footballers. It seems as if the government, and big corporate are not interested to scout for football talents.
Bengal football today is dependent on three parts of the state – the Muslim influenced villages, the Adivasis and the hill areas (like Mizoram or Manipur). Bengalis’ from villages can relate with the game as it is not costly, some boys even begin by playing with lemons.
- Indian cricketer MS Dhoni and his businessman friend Arun Pandey have launched a programme in Jharkhand to scout for football talent in the region
Indians are big fans of football, die-hard soccer fans stay up through the night to watch Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo weave their magic. I guess we all can hope now that the eight-year-old and the 10-year-olds taking up the game in India could play in the World Cup one day.
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