Around this hullabaloo surrounding the gentleman's game, I was left pondering about the most inquisitive of the questions, "Why is India lagging behind in Football?"
Being a die-hard football fan isn't helping my restless mind a bit. Every time I sit back late hours to watch a champion’s league match or a major FIFA tournament, it makes me think about the lack of dominating presence of my own country in this beautiful game. Trust me, everyone likes to cheer their favorite football stars, however, cheering your own countrymen is a different feeling altogether.
In all this curiosity, I started to research more about the Soccer history of India where I came across some startling facts. The year 1948 saw India participating in the London Olympics for the first time. Well if that was not surprising, then how about this one," the players were predominantly barefooted!!". The mere thought of playing football barefooted surprises me as would anyone who plays football for that matter. The result was a 2-1 loss to France but not before winning the hearts of the audience.
A golden chance to write history was missed when the All India Football Federation decided against playing the 1950 FIFA World Cup Finals citing reasons such as cost of travel, lack of practice time and valuing Olympics over FIFA Football World Cup. The years 1951-1962, although described as a golden era of Indian Football, it failed to keep the momentum going until 1964 India played in its most memorable tournament yet. The 1964 AFC Asian Cup where they finished as runners-up thanks to then-current manager Harry Wright. India won their first match against South Korea 2–0, then lost 2–0 to the hosts Israel then won 3–1 against Hong Kong which gave India second in the tournament.
That was all in the glorious chapter of India’s soccer history. After the Asian Cup, Indian Football just lost its way totally. Such is the agony for football that India doesn’t even have a permanent stadium. The only stadiums that are FIFA and AFC approved are the Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium also in New Delhi, Nehru Stadium in Chennai, Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune, and most recently approved after a renovation the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata.
Being a football fan deeply saddens me about this sorry state of affairs of India Football. A silver lining would be FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s comments,” ‘Sleeping Giant’ India slowly waking up”. With India all set to bid for 2017 U-17 world cup in 2015, I hope with the millions of Football Fan in the country will surely have their dream come true.
I wish all the good luck to the Indian Football Fraternity, in bringing back the Indian Team into the world map of Football.
Chetan Shetty
Saturday, 28th July 2012
Shanghai
Being a die-hard football fan isn't helping my restless mind a bit. Every time I sit back late hours to watch a champion’s league match or a major FIFA tournament, it makes me think about the lack of dominating presence of my own country in this beautiful game. Trust me, everyone likes to cheer their favorite football stars, however, cheering your own countrymen is a different feeling altogether.
In all this curiosity, I started to research more about the Soccer history of India where I came across some startling facts. The year 1948 saw India participating in the London Olympics for the first time. Well if that was not surprising, then how about this one," the players were predominantly barefooted!!". The mere thought of playing football barefooted surprises me as would anyone who plays football for that matter. The result was a 2-1 loss to France but not before winning the hearts of the audience.
A golden chance to write history was missed when the All India Football Federation decided against playing the 1950 FIFA World Cup Finals citing reasons such as cost of travel, lack of practice time and valuing Olympics over FIFA Football World Cup. The years 1951-1962, although described as a golden era of Indian Football, it failed to keep the momentum going until 1964 India played in its most memorable tournament yet. The 1964 AFC Asian Cup where they finished as runners-up thanks to then-current manager Harry Wright. India won their first match against South Korea 2–0, then lost 2–0 to the hosts Israel then won 3–1 against Hong Kong which gave India second in the tournament.
That was all in the glorious chapter of India’s soccer history. After the Asian Cup, Indian Football just lost its way totally. Such is the agony for football that India doesn’t even have a permanent stadium. The only stadiums that are FIFA and AFC approved are the Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium also in New Delhi, Nehru Stadium in Chennai, Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune, and most recently approved after a renovation the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata.
Being a football fan deeply saddens me about this sorry state of affairs of India Football. A silver lining would be FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s comments,” ‘Sleeping Giant’ India slowly waking up”. With India all set to bid for 2017 U-17 world cup in 2015, I hope with the millions of Football Fan in the country will surely have their dream come true.
I wish all the good luck to the Indian Football Fraternity, in bringing back the Indian Team into the world map of Football.
Chetan Shetty
Saturday, 28th July 2012
Shanghai
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