So, India’s campaign in the U-17 World Cup is over. In about two weeks, the tournament would be done and dusted. Allow us to return to the normal and revive our apathy towards Indian football. When the Salt Lake Stadium was inaugurated in 1984, it looked world-class. The new stadium hosted some Nehru Gold Cup matches to start with—a tournament that lined up some big international stars like Laszlo Kiss of Hungary, Wlodzimierz Smolarek of Poland and an Argentina team (sans Diego Maradona) under Carlos Bilardo, which would go on and win the 1986 World Cup. A few years after the inauguration, a few Mohun Bagan versus East Bengal matches later, the Salt Lake Stadium had lost its lustre. Irate fans had taken care of the polypropylene seats under the pretext of some ‘poor’ refereeing decisions, or anything that prompted them to walk on the wild side. The pitch gradually deteriorated because of the lack of maintenance. Kolkata’s football passion had long been narrowed down to hypes over Bagan-East Bengal and after the advent of satellite television, the English Premier League, the Champions League and other European leagues became the city’s favourite football pass-time. Thankfully, the U-17 World Cup arrived and the Salt Lake Stadium got a Rs 120-crore makeover. Bengal, the hub of Indian football, used to have vibrant district leagues till the 1980s. Those leagues served as talent-churning factories. But rapid urbanisation and promoting spree started to gobble up the green patches, and football in an organised form in the districts badly suffered.
In Punjab, JCT was a nursery of young footballers. The club shut shop because it felt that the All India Football Federation (AIFF) wasn’t adequately supporting their interest. In the 1970s and the early 1980s, Orkay Mills, Mafatlal and Air India had a big presence in Indian football. They used to nurture young Mumbai talents. Then Mahindra United came and made big investment in football. Air India still play the game at a lower level, but the others are gone and the Federation stayed non-reactive. Salgaocar and Dempo SC in Goa and Kerala Police are also history now in terms of top-flight Indian football. Against this backdrop, the India U-17 team’s performance in the World Cup was heroic. In a country where football pitches are at a premium at the grassroots and proper coaching for the kids is by and large unavailable—a few upmarket football schools barely contribute to grassroots development—the Indian colts punched way above their weight. Forget about the team conceding nine goals in three matches. Just revel in their effort that saw them hit the woodwork twice and score a goal. With some luck, India might have won against the South American heavyweights, Colombia. True, close to Rs 20 crore had been spent for the team’s preparation and over 2,000 air miles were covered. But if you consider that Real Madrid have forked out £39.6 million for a 16-year-old Brazilian, Vinicius Junior, who was supposed to be in this World Cup, but couldn’t come because his current club Flamengo refused to release him for the tournament, Rs 20 crore for team preparation for a World Cup looks peanuts. Kudos to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium crowd that gave the young Indian team a standing ovation after their final group league fixture against Ghana. The boys deserved every bit of it.
India coach Luis Norton de Matos made a frank and honest confession about the gulf that exists between a football newbie and the top teams in the world. “After two hard games, it was complicated to play a side like Ghana. African teams at this age-group level are very tough. Ghana was the toughest team and today difference was very big. Our best chance was in the first two games. We had no chance against Ghana,” de Matos said after his side’s World Cup exit. A former manager with the Benfica reserve side, de Matos took charge only in March this year after the AIFF fired Nicolai Adam following a player revolt. When a new coach comes, he starts from scratch. His starting XI rotation in tournament football suggested that he was unsure about the players’ fitness in terms of playing three matches in nine days. But credit to him, he encouraged the kids to play without any inferiority complex. This U-17 team is a work in progress and de Matos would be a perfect fit for their development. “I would like to be a part of this team going into the future, but I still have a few meetings with the AIFF. It is possible,” he said.
This was India’s maiden appearance in a Fifa World Cup finals and, let’s face it, we might not play on the world stage again at least for the next 50 years unless we host the tournament. Does our football have a proper roadmap to invite a bright future? Where will the likes of Anwar Ali, Dheeraj Moirangthem, Komal Thatal and Jeakson Thounaojam go from here? Football is basically a club sport and the youngsters need to hone their skills in clubs. These boys will feature in the I-League. But the I-League has now virtually been relegated to second-tier. And the Indian Super League (ISL) can never be the premier club tournament without Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. The powers-that-be in Indian football missed a trick by not incorporating the Kolkata giants into the ISL this term. Their history, heritage and fan following called for special treatment, because without these two clubs Indian football hardly exist. But Indian football cares little for its well-being. So till we get the chance to host another World Cup, at U-20 level, let us make a hasty retreat towards stagnation.
I like the first para... it signifies the mindset of any sporting body in india...
The inability to maintain the aura around the sport which a tournament like a FIFA world cup creates... we failed in promotion olympic games after CWG,... FIH keeps on giving tournament to us and we are not promoting the sport outside the established hotbeds in north and east india..
Hopefully AIFF learn the lessons and keep up with the positivity around the sport due to the performance of the kids and attract more kids to take the sport seriously at young age
looks like arab nations are worried and throwing dirt. India has already officially declared interest in hosting the FIFA U20 World Cup in 2019 and while a World Cup proper remains a pipe-dream, rumors are swirling that a bid to host an Asian Cup is at an advanced stage. India has the fourth-highest number of football facilities in the world, including 28 FIFA-approved training pitches and 98 stadiums with capacities larger than 20,000. Six of these were renovated for the U17 World Cup, while two other FIFA-ready arenas have already hosted Asian and World Cup qualifiers. http://www.arabnews.com/node/1178271/sports
Indian football needs to learn from cricket, starting with how to become a brand unto itself
Footballers, administrators and followers of the game in India lament the fact that almost 80 percent of all sponsorship money goes to cricket. Instead of pointing fingers, it would be more advantageous for football to pick up a trick or two from cricket.
The Brazilian striker with the magical skills, Neymar moved from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) this August for the mind-boggling sum of 222 million euros.
In recent times, French stars Paul Pogba and Ousman Dembele have been bought by Manchester United and Barcelona respectively for 105 million euros each, while Welshman Gareth Bale migrated to Real Madrid for 100 million euros in 2013.
Now, visualise a scenario where these pricey stars — and a few others like Eden Hazard, Alexis Sanchez, Sergio Aguero, Harry Kane and Kevin de Bruyne — are offered a 25 percent mark-up on their salaries to play a season in India. Would the players even consider it?
Indian football, for all it is worth, can’t provide a challenge for these geniuses. In cricket, the equivalent of three or four million euros each can fetch for Indian franchises the best players in the world. What’s more, these cricketers are provided with a challenge and are required to prove their worth on a daily basis.
hat, believe it or not, is the vital difference between Indian football and Indian cricket. Therefore, for the AIFF and FIFA to believe that Indian football could work its way up the rankings and one day, sooner rather than later, figure in the World Cup finals is nothing short of a fantasy.
For Neymar, when he made his move to PSG, money was only one of the motivations; that too, not the primary one. With PSG aiming to be among the world’s best clubs, he needed the challenge. Moreover, he wanted to get out of Lionel Messi’s shadow and be the star forward for his new team. “I want to win the Ballon d’Or,” he had declared.
Top English and Australian cricketers are believed to have opted out of tours to India, till the late 1960s, because of unhygienic conditions and spicy food. Moreover, the hot and humid Indian weather conditions were a deterrent for most of them. For some though, the Indian wickets and playing in front of large, partisan crowds were challenges.
In the new millennium, along with world class hotels in most Indian cities, cricketing infrastructure of international standards has come up all over the country. With over 80 large stadiums, there are millions of new cricket followers added every year.
From the huge fan-following thus created, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has succeeded in cleverly selling the game, for huge amounts, to broadcasters and corporate sponsors alike. To run the game efficiently, BCCI has created a huge corpus. It pays its cricketers handsomely, invests in coaching schemes and infrastructure, and cares for its retired players.
The coming of ESPN to India, along with other channels, on the opening of the Indian economy in the mid-1990s was Indian sports’ ‘gold rush’. Cricket made it to ‘Sacramento Valley’ first and made ‘big money’, what with sports marketing virtuosos like Mark Mascarenhas and others on the prowl.
It is said, around this time, that the All India Football Federation (AIFF) was offered the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) business plan by Lalit Modi. As the then president of AIFF sat over the proposal for months together, being lulled into complacency by the initial success of the National Football League, the IPL plan was gratefully picked up by BCCI.
Where BCCI accrued ‘first mover advantage’ and made big bucks through IPL, it is often debated whether AIFF — given its laid-back attitude — would have profited from being first mover at all.
Take the FIFA Under-17 World Cup being organised by India as an example. One of the biggest sports events ever to be organised in the country, its publicity and marketing was botched up. Sony, the official broadcasters of the matches, according to reports, expects to make around Rs 60 crore from the event, while any major cricket event leads to more than a Rs 1,000 crore of media spending.
Media experts believe that comparing football and cricket with regard to TV advertising revenues would be unfair. Cricket, they say, has breaks between overs which allow for a couple of ad slots every four minutes, whereas football lets ads be shown only at the beginning, during half-time and after the final whistle. Advertising wizards, however, say that there are ways of making money out of any event that has a captive audience.
All said and done, the organisers of the FIFA Under -17 World Cup have displayed a distinct lack of creativity and the will to make the most out of this world event. What is more appalling is the failure to create a larger fan-following for the sport. A huge opportunity has been lost.
AIFF sorely needs a professional marketing team to sell its wares. And it needs — urgently — to create football heroes! The English Premier League (EPL) is the most watched sports league in the world and has a TV audience of 4.7 billion people. Most Indian youngsters know more about the EPL than they do about Indian football. AIFF needs to view these youngsters, who follow EPL, as a potential future audience.
A higher pitch for ISL and I-League matches won’t do any harm. Indian football can also do with somebody like Sunil Chhetri and a few others being more visible in the media. Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and others did it for cricket and have now handed over the baton to Virat Kohli. Somebody has to become Indian football’s face; someone who can get in the sponsors as well as motivate youngsters to take up the sport professionally.
Moreover, like cricket, football has to be converted into a community movement. Many international cricket stars have come out of street-level tennis ball cricket. Football, organised on weekends for various age groups, beginning with 6-year olds on small maidansand parks could lead to a revolution. The AIFF has to take the lead in these local level initiatives through its state and district level bodies.
Grassroots are where the future champions come from.
Also, like cricket, AIFF needs to set up a national centre for football excellence. There should also be zonal academies, with talent hunters at state and district levels. Good coaches too, with a passion for nurturing talent, need to be persisted with and looked after well.
Footballers, administrators and followers of the game in India lament the fact that almost 80 percent of all sponsorship money goes to cricket. Instead of pointing fingers, it would be more advantageous for football to pick up a trick or two from cricket. Cricket is a brand; football needs to be one!
There is enough money out there for football too, provided the AIFF is ready to work hard for it!
Won't happen overnight. FIFA will be thrilled they are able to get a decent World Cup in a region where they want to convert, India is a huge potential market.
Brand comes only from culture bred over years. Chopping and changing leagues and formats will never help.
Its a bit more complex. With or without Indian Football, India is a big market for say TV Broadcasting rights for FIFA World Cup. Also Euro Cup, EPL and all.
It will be very interesting to compare theAudience and sponsorship money / ad slots figures of 1) International Football events 2) Domestic Indian Football 3) Domestic Indian Cricket like Ranji Trophy 4) International Cricket with India playing 5) International Cricket without India. 6) Other leagues like Pro-Kabaddi
Now is the time to reach out to youngsters through the FIFA World Cup
The 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup has many things riding on it for Indian football: a spurt in awareness and the expectation that the game will increase its fan base and attract talent. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has realised the way forward is to tap young talent and has introduced baby leagues to achieve that goal.
“There is abundant talent waiting to be nurtured. Now is the time to reach out to youngsters through the FIFA World Cup,” says former National coach Anadi Barua, who runs Barua Football Training Centre, an academy to groom young footballers, in Noida.
Parenting in the age of glory
For parents, the dilemma has always been picking between academics and sports for their kids.
Football now offers new avenues. Kids don’t just have to kick a ball around a park. Football offers a decent professional career. “You can play club football and make a good living. Football may fetch you a Government job. You can go on to become a coach or a referee once you retire from active football. The competition can be stiff, but there is something on offer at every step,” observes Tarun Roy, former international player and now coach at Sports Authority of Gujarat, based out of Gandhinagar.
“The right age to introduce your child to football is 6,” he says. “At my academy, I welcome kids when they are 6 and try and make them understand how they can combine the love for football and a possible career as a professional,” adds Roy.
Apart from the AIFF and State associations, there are private academies in the country which also invite youngsters to join the football movement.
As far as facilities (grounds) are concerned, we are lacking in this regard, though the Union Government is looking to invest in creating playfields in search of a young Messi or Ronaldo.
“Football helps you develop as an individual,” notes former FIFA talent search member Shaji Prabhakaran, Delhi.
“We have lagged in this department but I am happy to say that our youth are accepting football as a great team sport. It teaches you camaraderie, and more importantly, makes you accept defeat as part of the process. It teaches you the essence of team work. Individual skills don’t count in this wonderful team game,” he says.
The key, emphasises Barua, lies in learning the early points the right way. “You must send your child to the right academy and make sure it is being run by qualified people, like former players. The coaches at these academies must have official training licences from the AIFF.”
Fitness is everything
“There are certain fitness standards you need to maintain, that come from professional advice at the club level. Regular counselling by football experts (coaches, nutritionists, physios) can guide a talented youngster. Parents must not put pressure on their kids. The coach is the best person to take decisions concerning young talent. Injury management and recovery processes are best left to the coach,” says Barua.
Football is not expensive. Those who go on to wear the national colours don’t come from affluent backgrounds. Think Yousuf Khan, Chuni Goswami, Inder Singh, Peter Thangaraj.
“The playing kit does not cost much. The academies also don’t charge a high fee for coaching. It is a common man’s game with a global appeal. Let your child play football and become a disciplined citizen,” says Barua. The large turnout at venues hosting FIFA under-17 World Cup matches is an indication of the future. It is the best time for children to come onto the field.
Comments
https://www.lntup.com/2017/10/15/justin-jose-an-indian-coach-making-waves-across-the-ocean/
So, India’s campaign in the U-17 World Cup is over. In about two weeks, the tournament would be done and dusted. Allow us to return to the normal and revive our apathy towards Indian football. When the Salt Lake Stadium was inaugurated in 1984, it looked world-class. The new stadium hosted some Nehru Gold Cup matches to start with—a tournament that lined up some big international stars like Laszlo Kiss of Hungary, Wlodzimierz Smolarek of Poland and an Argentina team (sans Diego Maradona) under Carlos Bilardo, which would go on and win the 1986 World Cup. A few years after the inauguration, a few Mohun Bagan versus East Bengal matches later, the Salt Lake Stadium had lost its lustre. Irate fans had taken care of the polypropylene seats under the pretext of some ‘poor’ refereeing decisions, or anything that prompted them to walk on the wild side. The pitch gradually deteriorated because of the lack of maintenance. Kolkata’s football passion had long been narrowed down to hypes over Bagan-East Bengal and after the advent of satellite television, the English Premier League, the Champions League and other European leagues became the city’s favourite football pass-time. Thankfully, the U-17 World Cup arrived and the Salt Lake Stadium got a Rs 120-crore makeover. Bengal, the hub of Indian football, used to have vibrant district leagues till the 1980s. Those leagues served as talent-churning factories. But rapid urbanisation and promoting spree started to gobble up the green patches, and football in an organised form in the districts badly suffered.
In Punjab, JCT was a nursery of young footballers. The club shut shop because it felt that the All India Football Federation (AIFF) wasn’t adequately supporting their interest. In the 1970s and the early 1980s, Orkay Mills, Mafatlal and Air India had a big presence in Indian football. They used to nurture young Mumbai talents. Then Mahindra United came and made big investment in football. Air India still play the game at a lower level, but the others are gone and the Federation stayed non-reactive. Salgaocar and Dempo SC in Goa and Kerala Police are also history now in terms of top-flight Indian football. Against this backdrop, the India U-17 team’s performance in the World Cup was heroic. In a country where football pitches are at a premium at the grassroots and proper coaching for the kids is by and large unavailable—a few upmarket football schools barely contribute to grassroots development—the Indian colts punched way above their weight. Forget about the team conceding nine goals in three matches. Just revel in their effort that saw them hit the woodwork twice and score a goal. With some luck, India might have won against the South American heavyweights, Colombia. True, close to Rs 20 crore had been spent for the team’s preparation and over 2,000 air miles were covered. But if you consider that Real Madrid have forked out £39.6 million for a 16-year-old Brazilian, Vinicius Junior, who was supposed to be in this World Cup, but couldn’t come because his current club Flamengo refused to release him for the tournament, Rs 20 crore for team preparation for a World Cup looks peanuts. Kudos to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium crowd that gave the young Indian team a standing ovation after their final group league fixture against Ghana. The boys deserved every bit of it.
India coach Luis Norton de Matos made a frank and honest confession about the gulf that exists between a football newbie and the top teams in the world. “After two hard games, it was complicated to play a side like Ghana. African teams at this age-group level are very tough. Ghana was the toughest team and today difference was very big. Our best chance was in the first two games. We had no chance against Ghana,” de Matos said after his side’s World Cup exit. A former manager with the Benfica reserve side, de Matos took charge only in March this year after the AIFF fired Nicolai Adam following a player revolt. When a new coach comes, he starts from scratch. His starting XI rotation in tournament football suggested that he was unsure about the players’ fitness in terms of playing three matches in nine days. But credit to him, he encouraged the kids to play without any inferiority complex. This U-17 team is a work in progress and de Matos would be a perfect fit for their development. “I would like to be a part of this team going into the future, but I still have a few meetings with the AIFF. It is possible,” he said.
This was India’s maiden appearance in a Fifa World Cup finals and, let’s face it, we might not play on the world stage again at least for the next 50 years unless we host the tournament. Does our football have a proper roadmap to invite a bright future? Where will the likes of Anwar Ali, Dheeraj Moirangthem, Komal Thatal and Jeakson Thounaojam go from here? Football is basically a club sport and the youngsters need to hone their skills in clubs. These boys will feature in the I-League. But the I-League has now virtually been relegated to second-tier. And the Indian Super League (ISL) can never be the premier club tournament without Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. The powers-that-be in Indian football missed a trick by not incorporating the Kolkata giants into the ISL this term. Their history, heritage and fan following called for special treatment, because without these two clubs Indian football hardly exist. But Indian football cares little for its well-being. So till we get the chance to host another World Cup, at U-20 level, let us make a hasty retreat towards stagnation.
The inability to maintain the aura around the sport which a tournament like a FIFA world cup creates... we failed in promotion olympic games after CWG,... FIH keeps on giving tournament to us and we are not promoting the sport outside the established hotbeds in north and east india..
Hopefully AIFF learn the lessons and keep up with the positivity around the sport due to the performance of the kids and attract more kids to take the sport seriously at young age
India has already officially declared interest in hosting the FIFA U20 World Cup in 2019 and while a World Cup proper remains a pipe-dream, rumors are swirling that a bid to host an Asian Cup is at an advanced stage. India has the fourth-highest number of football facilities in the world, including 28 FIFA-approved training pitches and 98 stadiums with capacities larger than 20,000. Six of these were renovated for the U17 World Cup, while two other FIFA-ready arenas have already hosted Asian and World Cup qualifiers.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1178271/sports
Indian football needs to learn from cricket, starting with how to become a brand unto itself
Footballers, administrators and followers of the game in India lament the fact that almost 80 percent of all sponsorship money goes to cricket. Instead of pointing fingers, it would be more advantageous for football to pick up a trick or two from cricket.
The Brazilian striker with the magical skills, Neymar moved from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) this August for the mind-boggling sum of 222 million euros.
In recent times, French stars Paul Pogba and Ousman Dembele have been bought by Manchester United and Barcelona respectively for 105 million euros each, while Welshman Gareth Bale migrated to Real Madrid for 100 million euros in 2013.
Now, visualise a scenario where these pricey stars — and a few others like Eden Hazard, Alexis Sanchez, Sergio Aguero, Harry Kane and Kevin de Bruyne — are offered a 25 percent mark-up on their salaries to play a season in India. Would the players even consider it?
Indian football, for all it is worth, can’t provide a challenge for these geniuses. In cricket, the equivalent of three or four million euros each can fetch for Indian franchises the best players in the world. What’s more, these cricketers are provided with a challenge and are required to prove their worth on a daily basis.
hat, believe it or not, is the vital difference between Indian football and Indian cricket. Therefore, for the AIFF and FIFA to believe that Indian football could work its way up the rankings and one day, sooner rather than later, figure in the World Cup finals is nothing short of a fantasy.
For Neymar, when he made his move to PSG, money was only one of the motivations; that too, not the primary one. With PSG aiming to be among the world’s best clubs, he needed the challenge. Moreover, he wanted to get out of Lionel Messi’s shadow and be the star forward for his new team. “I want to win the Ballon d’Or,” he had declared.
Top English and Australian cricketers are believed to have opted out of tours to India, till the late 1960s, because of unhygienic conditions and spicy food. Moreover, the hot and humid Indian weather conditions were a deterrent for most of them. For some though, the Indian wickets and playing in front of large, partisan crowds were challenges.
In the new millennium, along with world class hotels in most Indian cities, cricketing infrastructure of international standards has come up all over the country. With over 80 large stadiums, there are millions of new cricket followers added every year.
From the huge fan-following thus created, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has succeeded in cleverly selling the game, for huge amounts, to broadcasters and corporate sponsors alike. To run the game efficiently, BCCI has created a huge corpus. It pays its cricketers handsomely, invests in coaching schemes and infrastructure, and cares for its retired players.
The coming of ESPN to India, along with other channels, on the opening of the Indian economy in the mid-1990s was Indian sports’ ‘gold rush’. Cricket made it to ‘Sacramento Valley’ first and made ‘big money’, what with sports marketing virtuosos like Mark Mascarenhas and others on the prowl.
It is said, around this time, that the All India Football Federation (AIFF) was offered the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) business plan by Lalit Modi. As the then president of AIFF sat over the proposal for months together, being lulled into complacency by the initial success of the National Football League, the IPL plan was gratefully picked up by BCCI.
Where BCCI accrued ‘first mover advantage’ and made big bucks through IPL, it is often debated whether AIFF — given its laid-back attitude — would have profited from being first mover at all.
Take the FIFA Under-17 World Cup being organised by India as an example. One of the biggest sports events ever to be organised in the country, its publicity and marketing was botched up. Sony, the official broadcasters of the matches, according to reports, expects to make around Rs 60 crore from the event, while any major cricket event leads to more than a Rs 1,000 crore of media spending.
Media experts believe that comparing football and cricket with regard to TV advertising revenues would be unfair. Cricket, they say, has breaks between overs which allow for a couple of ad slots every four minutes, whereas football lets ads be shown only at the beginning, during half-time and after the final whistle. Advertising wizards, however, say that there are ways of making money out of any event that has a captive audience.
All said and done, the organisers of the FIFA Under -17 World Cup have displayed a distinct lack of creativity and the will to make the most out of this world event. What is more appalling is the failure to create a larger fan-following for the sport. A huge opportunity has been lost.
AIFF sorely needs a professional marketing team to sell its wares. And it needs — urgently — to create football heroes! The English Premier League (EPL) is the most watched sports league in the world and has a TV audience of 4.7 billion people. Most Indian youngsters know more about the EPL than they do about Indian football. AIFF needs to view these youngsters, who follow EPL, as a potential future audience.
A higher pitch for ISL and I-League matches won’t do any harm. Indian football can also do with somebody like Sunil Chhetri and a few others being more visible in the media. Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and others did it for cricket and have now handed over the baton to Virat Kohli. Somebody has to become Indian football’s face; someone who can get in the sponsors as well as motivate youngsters to take up the sport professionally.
Moreover, like cricket, football has to be converted into a community movement. Many international cricket stars have come out of street-level tennis ball cricket. Football, organised on weekends for various age groups, beginning with 6-year olds on small maidansand parks could lead to a revolution. The AIFF has to take the lead in these local level initiatives through its state and district level bodies.
Grassroots are where the future champions come from.
Also, like cricket, AIFF needs to set up a national centre for football excellence. There should also be zonal academies, with talent hunters at state and district levels. Good coaches too, with a passion for nurturing talent, need to be persisted with and looked after well.
Footballers, administrators and followers of the game in India lament the fact that almost 80 percent of all sponsorship money goes to cricket. Instead of pointing fingers, it would be more advantageous for football to pick up a trick or two from cricket. Cricket is a brand; football needs to be one!
There is enough money out there for football too, provided the AIFF is ready to work hard for it!
Brand comes only from culture bred over years. Chopping and changing leagues and formats will never help.
We are slowly but surely getting there.
It will be very interesting to compare theAudience and sponsorship money / ad slots figures of
1) International Football events
2) Domestic Indian Football
3) Domestic Indian Cricket like Ranji Trophy
4) International Cricket with India playing
5) International Cricket without India.
6) Other leagues like Pro-Kabaddi
Now is the time to reach out to youngsters through the FIFA World Cup
The 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup has many things riding on it for Indian football: a spurt in awareness and the expectation that the game will increase its fan base and attract talent. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has realised the way forward is to tap young talent and has introduced baby leagues to achieve that goal.
“There is abundant talent waiting to be nurtured. Now is the time to reach out to youngsters through the FIFA World Cup,” says former National coach Anadi Barua, who runs Barua Football Training Centre, an academy to groom young footballers, in Noida.
Parenting in the age of glory
For parents, the dilemma has always been picking between academics and sports for their kids.
Football now offers new avenues. Kids don’t just have to kick a ball around a park. Football offers a decent professional career. “You can play club football and make a good living. Football may fetch you a Government job. You can go on to become a coach or a referee once you retire from active football. The competition can be stiff, but there is something on offer at every step,” observes Tarun Roy, former international player and now coach at Sports Authority of Gujarat, based out of Gandhinagar.
“The right age to introduce your child to football is 6,” he says. “At my academy, I welcome kids when they are 6 and try and make them understand how they can combine the love for football and a possible career as a professional,” adds Roy.
Apart from the AIFF and State associations, there are private academies in the country which also invite youngsters to join the football movement.
As far as facilities (grounds) are concerned, we are lacking in this regard, though the Union Government is looking to invest in creating playfields in search of a young Messi or Ronaldo.
“Football helps you develop as an individual,” notes former FIFA talent search member Shaji Prabhakaran, Delhi.
“We have lagged in this department but I am happy to say that our youth are accepting football as a great team sport. It teaches you camaraderie, and more importantly, makes you accept defeat as part of the process. It teaches you the essence of team work. Individual skills don’t count in this wonderful team game,” he says.
The key, emphasises Barua, lies in learning the early points the right way. “You must send your child to the right academy and make sure it is being run by qualified people, like former players. The coaches at these academies must have official training licences from the AIFF.”
Fitness is everything
“There are certain fitness standards you need to maintain, that come from professional advice at the club level. Regular counselling by football experts (coaches, nutritionists, physios) can guide a talented youngster. Parents must not put pressure on their kids. The coach is the best person to take decisions concerning young talent. Injury management and recovery processes are best left to the coach,” says Barua.
Football is not expensive. Those who go on to wear the national colours don’t come from affluent backgrounds. Think Yousuf Khan, Chuni Goswami, Inder Singh, Peter Thangaraj.
“The playing kit does not cost much. The academies also don’t charge a high fee for coaching. It is a common man’s game with a global appeal. Let your child play football and become a disciplined citizen,” says Barua. The large turnout at venues hosting FIFA under-17 World Cup matches is an indication of the future. It is the best time for children to come onto the field.