The future of Indian Football is not as bad as it may seem. Though it seems that the team has been underperforming for ages and fans being heavily dissapointed with the team's performance in last year's Asian Cup, very few try to rationalize that the opponents we had in that tournament were simply world-class. India was pitched in the hardest group of all, comprising of giants like Australia (FIFA Ranking 20), South Korea (FIFA Ranking 31) and Bahrain (FIFA Ranking 91) with India being the lowly 145th ranked nation. Yes, they lost all the matches, but the manner in which they played and attacked was really commendable and all the coaches of opposite teams spoke many good things about our team. India managed to score a goal against Australia and South Korea and two goals against Bahrain, which is in itself an outstanding achievement. Enough about the senior boys for the time being.
My main focus of writing this article is not about the senior team but that of the junior guys. Nobody seems to support them, leave aside follow them. But you would be surprised to know about some of the achievements that the team has acheived in the last couple of years! To name a few, in 2007, the Indian Under-16 team went to Germany and defeated the youth Under-16's of three world-class German teams, VfB Stuttgart, 1860 Munich and FC Augsburg by 2-0 margins. If you dont know about them then just google them! The same team, in 2008, went to England and drew with Manchester United Under 16's with 3-3 score!! Isn't it a remarkable achievement? Lately, the team is on a good outstanding form beating the likes of heavyweights as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Lebanon and is expected to be a force in the future !! Ofcourse, the credit goes to the Youth Coach of India, Mr. Coal Toal who was the ex. academy director at english premier club Tottenham Hotspur, whose constant dedication and motivation has led the team to such advancements !!
But the biggest sulking matter is both AIFF (All India Football Federation) and Indian people themselves. As for AIFF, matters are still worse there, internal politics on a rage and political power instead of Technical Manpower making the decisions and minimal development of infrastructure being undertaken. Coming to the fans, every team needs motivation and encouragement from its own fans to become world class, but if fans dont cheer them up, they may lose interest quickly.
So, my humble request to AIFF to become more serious and to each and every Indian to also take out some time from Cricket for our own "Junior Bhangra Boys" !!
