How a systemic failure destroyed Indian football

L-R: The ISL Trophy & AIFF Football House (Image: ISL, AIFF)

Boria Majumdar

Now that the dust has settled and I am trying to process the loss against Singapore and the end to the campaign, here are a few thoughts. These are still disjointed so pardon me for that.

Football is a sport that is watched by millions in the country. Literally millions watch and play it. And before anyone jumps on me and says but there aren’t any facilities and how am I comparing things with the West or even Asia, let me say very clearly that with the ISL there are enough and more resources. India’s national team players earn in millions and the tournament has made football a viable career option. And yet the Federation or the clubs and the associated eco-system has not been able to make use of the competition and create a competitive national team that even makes the 24 team AFC competition.

With the ISL you have better physios, better support staff and better infrastructure available. Injury management and all else has turned professional. And yet there is no improvement. This brings me to the two key parts of the eco-system- AIFF and players.

AIFF- In the last few years it has been about court cases and controversy. Controversy over sending the national team to the Asian Games made us a laughing stock. Parting of ways with Stimac made a national headline. Manolo was a disaster. And then we went back to Khalid Jamil. Except changing coaches, deep down nothing much was done.

If a national federation is in the news for all the wrong reasons, it will always impact the players. When players are forced to put out posts on social media saying they don’t know what the future holds, you understand things aren’t well.

Also Read Indian football hits rock bottom, time for radical overhaul

This piece isn’t about blaming the AIFF. I am as much an Indian football supporter as Kalyan Chaubey and his team. So don’t come and tell me what could the federation have done? If Indian cricket does this, the BCCI is indeed the one held responsible. Similarly if we don’t win at the Asian level in hockey, Hockey India will have to accept the responsibility.

The entire system has failed us. To get Sunil Chhetri back was a major mistake. It was an indication we don’t have the players who can do the duty up front. The I league has been on for decades now and yet we needed to go back to Sunil. The ISL is supposed to be the top of the pyramid. And the I league the base. The base is weak and hence there is no supply chain of Indian strikers to the ISL.

The question to ask is why did the Federation not stop such a regressive move? The moot point is both the National Team and ISL suffer because the AIFF (and member State FAs) have failed in their role of developing a big and strong Indian player pool. AIFF wants to monetize ISL rights without doing the underlying hard work of developing players (like BCCI did before monetising IPL) and the end result is what we see. The sport is dead. Almost. Take the hard calls or it will soon be all over.

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