On a fine evening on the 3rd of June 2018 as I picked up my Ipad to browse through Twitter which has more or less become my newspaper of sorts, sifting through the various articles, tweets and stuff ranging from current affairs to people providing drab movie reviews to some instances of imbeciled sense of humour and among these clips my eye fell on a video clip tweeted by a certain man called "Sunil Chhetri" who plays for the Indian Football Team I heard. The overhead caption read "this is nothing but a small plea from me to you". The caption instantly arose a feeling of surprise and expectation of what was to come for the football fan within me. Listening to the video carefully, I took a quick moment to congratulate my own intuition and assessment of things to come. These were the words of the man in his proclamation to the Indian "fan":-
"THE LEVELS OF FOOTBALL (HERE IN INDIA) ARE NOT AT PAR WITH THE STANDARDS OF THE EUROPEAN EQUIVALENT, NOT EVEN CLOSE. BUT WITH DESIRE AND DETERMINATION, WE CAN GIVE YOU YOUR TIME'S WORTH. SCREAM AT US, SHOUT AT US, TALK ABOUT THE GAME, DISCUSS WITH YOUR FRIENDS ,CRITICIZE AND ABUSE US BUT DO IT AT OUR FACES. COME TO THE STADIUMS AND SUPPORT US AND WHO KNOWS ONE DAY WE MAY CHANGE YOU. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT JUNCTURE IN INDIAN FOOTBALL AND YOUR SUPPORT TO US WILL BE IMMENSE. PLEASE COME AND SUPPORT US"
The clip ranged for about 2 minutes but left us (or) me personally with a ton of questions which I wanna ask to myself, to the football crazy fans in India, hell to sports fans across India. What are we doing about Indian Football? Where do we place Indian football (if we do in the first place)? It is well-known as agreed by the skipper that the quality in Indian football isn't ensconced and talked about in the same manner as other footballing powerhouses around the world and there is a gulf in class. But the manner in which we tend to neglect the footballing culture in India gives plenty of reasons for thought.
We are a culmination of almost a billion people (and counting), we are one of the most sport-crazy nations in the world, but our passion for Indian sport finishes off at cricket, at the expense of not just football but also other sports which enjoy much lesser status in India. But this is gonna be all about how football particularly is perceived today in India since it is my favourite sport.
Discussions about football (in India) are quite intense and sometimes intuitive, also a tad far-fetched, but the only points of discussions are about how a certain club in Spain or England holds the best players and the best coaches in the world and how two players have captured and captivated the imagination of the world. Barely do we talk about our own circuit first that we bring out excerpts and stats (sometimes fake ones too) and what not data to substantiate our case for some player plying his trade in Europe or the South American equivalent for whom we rave in our support but tend to forget that we have people of our own who are working day and night to bring Indian football to the heights few would've thought it to be where it is. The progress is rapid and ongoing as I write this.
Two years ago, India was ranked a lowly 173rd in the world during a time when Indian football was at its lowest rung there seemed to be no vision or roadmap. Indian Football seemed to be going nowhere, but with a change in personnel and an improved plan of action, today the results are showing for the Men in Blue who at the time of writing sit at a record world ranking of #97. But the success is not just in climbing the world rankings it is the success that we have achieved in unearthing young talents and blooding them early that we now have a proper team to call for the first time probably. True, we are yet to face the class of teams like Germany among many. We struggle to contain New Zealand so who would give us a chance against such heavyweights but the point to note is that initiatives lead to a process and process leads to progress. The initiatives have begun and the process is in place. The progress is beginning to take root, it is not an overnight one but rather has been a period of sustained success through wins and improvement in every sphere of the game. But the success isn't worth commendable until it ain't considered and mentioned by our own folk, then what is that success worth for?
Now for the problem at hand. Three important questions arise at this moment. Take a minute to answer them:-
1.) How many of us truly know about the progress that Indian Football has been making?
2.) Do we truly care about Football in India in the same manner in which we do for other sports? Even a part of it?
3.) What must be done by Indian Football to capture the attention of the Indian audience other than pleading and requesting?
Even an hour may not be enough to settle the various opinions that might occur in this debate but at the end we will only be left scratching our heads and in another few days time forget about it all over again. A simple answer to all the three or rather the first two would be that we as football crazy fans in India don't seem to gain any willful know-how about the on-goings in the sport when it comes to our own nation. It takes a special request from a humble guy like the Indian captain to plead and request the people of his own country who pride themselves to be "football aficionados" to come to stadiums and support the national team when despite all setbacks and obstacles it is our duty to stand by the team and spur them on. When the same happens to the Indian Cricket Team or any other sports events teams and sorts, our discussions sees no end but why the discrepancy for football then? We discuss, we debate, fight and pray when it comes to a low time for the Indian Cricket Team but when it happens to other sports particularly, there is no to even look around. But we do one thing for certain. We are the first people to demotivate and ridicule our players for every failure that occurs without any understanding for the hardships that they face without a proper support structure, we find time to write ridicule after ridicule on social media and in articles but don't find the same to go to the stadiums or even switch channels to watch 11 men sweat it out for us, being busy for some other game happening in a shoddy, wet pitch in England.
Now for more stats, the average attendance for a match in the much-hyped Indian Super League, the premier league football competition in India is lower than that of the sister leagues like the Chinese Super League (24,159), the J1 (Japan) League (18,883) even the lower tiers of German (21,735) and the English (20,119) football divisions have a better attendance rate than ours, with this being the plight of the top flight strata of competitive football in India, and it receiving such treatment the problem lies not in the players or in the staff or in their work but the sorry scenes football in India is facing with the people outside the pitch. Also football enjoys the least amount of TV viewership in the nation among all sports, even a slow sport like golf has more viewership than football.The league competition in India is primarily seen as another tool for huge conglomerates and consortiums to buy avenues to market their stuff and get the rotation of money going through. Average attendance in the Hero ISL
There is development though, for not the first time in our history the people saw the light of the day only after heeding the call off the skipper and the news went viral across social media. As a result, "fans" thronged to the stadium to watch India take on Kenya in Sunil Chhetri's centennial game for India the turnout was good and so was the result. It gave the call that if this side can achieve so much in so little time without any proper backing, think about the scenes when we stay behind our national team? The sky is the limit and more.
It is not a sense of obligation from the players and people alike. It is call for us to finally put to an end to the gay abandon that the sport has been facing. Especially in the local sphere of things. Football in India is undergoing rapid development and transition and the results are the harbingers of the progress being made. The improvements in the play and work are also there for everyone to see. Only if we open our eyes to see it ourselves rather than not wait for others to carry around a rallying cry requesting us to fill the stadia and watch the matches to do what we would be doing as sports-lovers of this great sporting nation and also as well-wishers of the beautiful game.
Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success
Hopefully people keep note of this message and do what we do best for our men and our sportspersons. Support them, criticize them but let them know that we are here for them whenever they need us. Start from today, it's never too late. Let the support and consciousness not be there for just a single sport but deem all other disciplines worth watching and the achievements worth commemorating as well in the same breath and across the same commensurate parallels.
PS:- How I wish those morons had worn a god-damn pair of boots in the 1950 World Cup?!! I wouldn't need to have been sitting here today and neither need have the skipper given his call. FOOLS!!
"THE LEVELS OF FOOTBALL (HERE IN INDIA) ARE NOT AT PAR WITH THE STANDARDS OF THE EUROPEAN EQUIVALENT, NOT EVEN CLOSE. BUT WITH DESIRE AND DETERMINATION, WE CAN GIVE YOU YOUR TIME'S WORTH. SCREAM AT US, SHOUT AT US, TALK ABOUT THE GAME, DISCUSS WITH YOUR FRIENDS ,CRITICIZE AND ABUSE US BUT DO IT AT OUR FACES. COME TO THE STADIUMS AND SUPPORT US AND WHO KNOWS ONE DAY WE MAY CHANGE YOU. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT JUNCTURE IN INDIAN FOOTBALL AND YOUR SUPPORT TO US WILL BE IMMENSE. PLEASE COME AND SUPPORT US"
The clip ranged for about 2 minutes but left us (or) me personally with a ton of questions which I wanna ask to myself, to the football crazy fans in India, hell to sports fans across India. What are we doing about Indian Football? Where do we place Indian football (if we do in the first place)? It is well-known as agreed by the skipper that the quality in Indian football isn't ensconced and talked about in the same manner as other footballing powerhouses around the world and there is a gulf in class. But the manner in which we tend to neglect the footballing culture in India gives plenty of reasons for thought.
We are a culmination of almost a billion people (and counting), we are one of the most sport-crazy nations in the world, but our passion for Indian sport finishes off at cricket, at the expense of not just football but also other sports which enjoy much lesser status in India. But this is gonna be all about how football particularly is perceived today in India since it is my favourite sport.
Discussions about football (in India) are quite intense and sometimes intuitive, also a tad far-fetched, but the only points of discussions are about how a certain club in Spain or England holds the best players and the best coaches in the world and how two players have captured and captivated the imagination of the world. Barely do we talk about our own circuit first that we bring out excerpts and stats (sometimes fake ones too) and what not data to substantiate our case for some player plying his trade in Europe or the South American equivalent for whom we rave in our support but tend to forget that we have people of our own who are working day and night to bring Indian football to the heights few would've thought it to be where it is. The progress is rapid and ongoing as I write this.
Two years ago, India was ranked a lowly 173rd in the world during a time when Indian football was at its lowest rung there seemed to be no vision or roadmap. Indian Football seemed to be going nowhere, but with a change in personnel and an improved plan of action, today the results are showing for the Men in Blue who at the time of writing sit at a record world ranking of #97. But the success is not just in climbing the world rankings it is the success that we have achieved in unearthing young talents and blooding them early that we now have a proper team to call for the first time probably. True, we are yet to face the class of teams like Germany among many. We struggle to contain New Zealand so who would give us a chance against such heavyweights but the point to note is that initiatives lead to a process and process leads to progress. The initiatives have begun and the process is in place. The progress is beginning to take root, it is not an overnight one but rather has been a period of sustained success through wins and improvement in every sphere of the game. But the success isn't worth commendable until it ain't considered and mentioned by our own folk, then what is that success worth for?
Now for the problem at hand. Three important questions arise at this moment. Take a minute to answer them:-
1.) How many of us truly know about the progress that Indian Football has been making?
2.) Do we truly care about Football in India in the same manner in which we do for other sports? Even a part of it?
3.) What must be done by Indian Football to capture the attention of the Indian audience other than pleading and requesting?
Even an hour may not be enough to settle the various opinions that might occur in this debate but at the end we will only be left scratching our heads and in another few days time forget about it all over again. A simple answer to all the three or rather the first two would be that we as football crazy fans in India don't seem to gain any willful know-how about the on-goings in the sport when it comes to our own nation. It takes a special request from a humble guy like the Indian captain to plead and request the people of his own country who pride themselves to be "football aficionados" to come to stadiums and support the national team when despite all setbacks and obstacles it is our duty to stand by the team and spur them on. When the same happens to the Indian Cricket Team or any other sports events teams and sorts, our discussions sees no end but why the discrepancy for football then? We discuss, we debate, fight and pray when it comes to a low time for the Indian Cricket Team but when it happens to other sports particularly, there is no to even look around. But we do one thing for certain. We are the first people to demotivate and ridicule our players for every failure that occurs without any understanding for the hardships that they face without a proper support structure, we find time to write ridicule after ridicule on social media and in articles but don't find the same to go to the stadiums or even switch channels to watch 11 men sweat it out for us, being busy for some other game happening in a shoddy, wet pitch in England.
 |
Indian Football players celebrates after they beat Macau by 4-1 during the AFC Asian cup qualifier match in Bengaluru. |
Now for more stats, the average attendance for a match in the much-hyped Indian Super League, the premier league football competition in India is lower than that of the sister leagues like the Chinese Super League (24,159), the J1 (Japan) League (18,883) even the lower tiers of German (21,735) and the English (20,119) football divisions have a better attendance rate than ours, with this being the plight of the top flight strata of competitive football in India, and it receiving such treatment the problem lies not in the players or in the staff or in their work but the sorry scenes football in India is facing with the people outside the pitch. Also football enjoys the least amount of TV viewership in the nation among all sports, even a slow sport like golf has more viewership than football.The league competition in India is primarily seen as another tool for huge conglomerates and consortiums to buy avenues to market their stuff and get the rotation of money going through. Average attendance in the Hero ISL
There is development though, for not the first time in our history the people saw the light of the day only after heeding the call off the skipper and the news went viral across social media. As a result, "fans" thronged to the stadium to watch India take on Kenya in Sunil Chhetri's centennial game for India the turnout was good and so was the result. It gave the call that if this side can achieve so much in so little time without any proper backing, think about the scenes when we stay behind our national team? The sky is the limit and more.
It is not a sense of obligation from the players and people alike. It is call for us to finally put to an end to the gay abandon that the sport has been facing. Especially in the local sphere of things. Football in India is undergoing rapid development and transition and the results are the harbingers of the progress being made. The improvements in the play and work are also there for everyone to see. Only if we open our eyes to see it ourselves rather than not wait for others to carry around a rallying cry requesting us to fill the stadia and watch the matches to do what we would be doing as sports-lovers of this great sporting nation and also as well-wishers of the beautiful game.
Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success
Hopefully people keep note of this message and do what we do best for our men and our sportspersons. Support them, criticize them but let them know that we are here for them whenever they need us. Start from today, it's never too late. Let the support and consciousness not be there for just a single sport but deem all other disciplines worth watching and the achievements worth commemorating as well in the same breath and across the same commensurate parallels.
PS:- How I wish those morons had worn a god-damn pair of boots in the 1950 World Cup?!! I wouldn't need to have been sitting here today and neither need have the skipper given his call. FOOLS!!
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