National team Rankings matter for WORK PERMIT in a top league.
Sunil Chetri was in talks with QPR when they were in Championship and they almost signed him, but the deal didn't go through as India's Fifa rank was above 70. Somewhere around 140-150. They realised that Work Permit for Sunil was out of question, so the deal failed.
Even if our team is not deserving of the current rankings, in our country of 1.2 billion people , there must be atleast 5-6 players with potential of playing in EPL, La Liga etc. For such players it will be a great base to play in a top league if India's ranking is good.
In addition to this, sponsors will start lining up, the media will start covering Indian football more, we will be seeded and get good draws and there will be influx of more fans to support football in India because rankings is an indicator of National team doing well no matter how flawed FIFA rankings are.
Breaking into the top 100 will give us unprecedented media coverage, which is not to be ignored. Also when a team goes up in the ranking that means they have earned substantial amount of points. As the average of last 12 months points is given 100% weightage, this means for atleast a year there is little chance of falling drastically below 150 even if some results don't go our way
India should get a direct ACL if we maintain this ranking but you AFC is anti India so it won't happen. only if aunty ji can pay some nuts to AFC to allow ISL champion in ACL :P
Comments
Sunil Chetri was in talks with QPR when they were in Championship and they almost signed him, but the deal didn't go through as India's Fifa rank was above 70. Somewhere around 140-150. They realised that Work Permit for Sunil was out of question, so the deal failed.
Even if our team is not deserving of the current rankings, in our country of 1.2 billion people , there must be atleast 5-6 players with potential of playing in EPL, La Liga etc. For such players it will be a great base to play in a top league if India's ranking is good.
In addition to this, sponsors will start lining up, the media will start covering Indian football more, we will be seeded and get good draws and there will be influx of more fans to support football in India because rankings is an indicator of National team doing well no matter how flawed FIFA rankings are.
So, RANKINGS DO MATTER.