The present scenario of Indian Football

Football in India has always been regarded as one of the entertaining sports and since the pre-colonial era the game is quite popularize among most of the youths. Although it’s said that the passion towards the game is gradually fading away and also parents are no longer interested to send their children to play football anymore. While trying to figure out the reason, the most common factor that can easily be pointed out is lack of Government job in recent days.

Earlier several government organizations in our country used to recruit many footballers throughout the year in different parts of the country. Among which Railway, Bank, Metro and ONGC were the most popular sectors to do so. However, with time the percentage has gone down and at present many of the above cited concerns are no longer eager to participate in the most prestigious tournament of the country, Santosh Trophy. Thus, very naturally the recruitment process has also come to a hold.

Besides, the wrong attempt of modification of the football structure in our country to some extent caused for the disparity in the recent days. The emotional attachment that Bengalis’ had with football has been disintegrated with the introduction of the corporate football league ISL. In our nation football was one of the most cultured topic among all age groups for the popularity of the game and its value pertaining to the most prestigious professional football clubs, East Bengal and Mohun Bagan.

With the introduction of ISL, there was a sharp tendency of repression of the National League (I-League) which had a long-lasting emotion and tradition attached to it. Therefore it eventually affected the sentiment of the football lovers and after an initial desire to stunt the implementation of ISL, the Indian football lovers receded from the process. The entire procedure of bringing ISL into the scenario of Indian football by the Reliance group was indeed an episode of demolishing the growth as well as passion of Indian football lovers.

Initially one might think that the introduction of ISL has been a profitable aspect for Indian football and at the same time may argue on the factor of the growth of Indian national team with a remarkable achievement of coming within ‘100’ in FIFA ranking. But such contemplation would be a consideration of lack of knowledge, because the growth that Indian football picked-up was only the result of the youth products that have been nurtured by the national league (I-League) clubs for over a period of time. Basically, the attempt of making Indian football a business plan within a short span ultimately subjugated the prosperity of Indian Football.

The idea of making ISL as a business prospect, indeed a matter of appreciation, as all across the world the big clubs like, Manchester United, Arsenal, Real Madrid, etc. all have evolved the process for a long period of time and where they are today it’s only the reward of following a long term project. But, on the other hand the approach of ISL management to accomplish the goal by spending a lot of money on film stars and bringing retired foreign players instead of following the most fundamental aspects of football, didn’t help them at all to succeed. All that is required to have their dream come true, is a right path which should be ruled by some experienced people and that too with the betterment of youth football.

Therefore the lack of employment and the sudden knock on the emotion of the football lovers eventually forced them to stay away from the game. It has also caused the hesitation of parents to send their children to play the beautiful game. In addition, the further reason of such impasse situation is the unevaluated decision and the blind tendency of following the developed football countries without any evaluation about Indian football phenomenon.

In order to overcome the stagnant condition, the first and foremost step that should be considered is renovation of I-League, keeping the following steps in the mind for the sake of Indian football -

• Popularizing the I-League in all division
• Modification of the regulation of relegation and promotion process of I-League, without any tendency of lenient approach towards any corporate clubs.
• Make some necessary amendments in the regulation and reform the system to enable maximum teams to participate in the league
• Considering the economic growth of the clubs as the most fundamental prospect of the association of the nation.  

The proper implementation of the above criteria along with introduction of new employment possibility would certainly be a fruitful factor for Indian football.