India is now playing matches in the qualifying rounds of World cup 2018. India is on Group D with teams like Iran, Oman, Turkmenistan and Guam.They started their campaign with a loss against strong team Oman. Oman won the match 2-1.
Iran and Oman are considered to be power house in Asian football with their present FIFA ranking position 41 and 101 respectively. We all knew that it would be very difficult for the Indians to beat them in the qualifiers.
However,football lovers in India expected a win against Guam at least, as it is below in ranking than India. India is positioned in 141 and Guam is positioned 33 places behind at 174th position. But, the boys of Stephen Constantine has just made us frustrated with their humiliating defeat against Guam, a small western pacific island having a population of only around 1.6 lac. Have we heard about this country before? But, India often lost to geographically unknown smaller countries in football. so it is not at all new incident.
Now, India has to play both Iran and Turkmenistan. And, in the return match with Guam and Oman is also due. Unfortunately, Guam will rise in ranking with this win and face India again with higher ranking. So, it will be a morale booster for them.
India, once a good football power in Asia mainly in 60's and 70's when they competed at par with countries like Iran,experienced a steady fall and now only satisfied competing with the SAARC countries like Nepal,Pakistan, Bangladesh etc. Anyways, things started looking better for last couple of years under guidance of foreign coaches, as India had shown some signs of improvements, though we are still far far below as per even Asian standard.
Actually, Indian football is lacking in basic infrastructure. There is no dearth of talent and skill in the footballers at the young age, but they gradually lose direction with lack of power and stamina. Football is a body contact power game and Indians are way behind in this regard.
With the process of country wide I League, All Indian Football Federation is trying to increase the basic infrastructure and standard of Indian football. Indians are get to play with and against some foreign footballers in I League, some of the Indian players go to Europe to play club footballs, but still everything seems to be in nascent stage.
FIFA has chosen India to host the Under 19 football world cup in 2017, and every one is hoping this would be a great exposure to the young footballers of the country.
Actually, once a popular sports in India now has become just a normal game with sky high popularity of cricket, most of the youngsters have also lost interest in the game. There is very little money in football if we compare it to that of cricket, scarcity of sponsors are there. all these factors make things miserable for Indian football.
So, countries like Thailand, Myanmar are ahead of us. Even in Asian level, Indian football has nothing to take pride in, and word football is a distant dream for us and we can watch them on TV only.
In order to be a power force to reckon with even in Asia, Indian Football needs a drastic change, now it is taking one baby step forward and hence we have to wait and see the future ahead!
