Maybe — the fans now thought — we can still get something out of this. In the end, India did: a 2-2 draw achieved in injury time. The celebrations on the marsh-like pitch weren’t those of a side exiting the World Cup qualifiers at an early stage and on the verge of slipping six places down the FIFA rankings to 153. Instead, they seemed to reflect a realisation among the players that they could compete with a side like the UAE, ranked 44 places above them.
Of the 13 players who took the field against UAE, four — Jeje, Ralte, Raju Gaikwad and Jewel Raja Shaikh — had also played for India’s under-23s against Qatar a month before. They had lost 4-2 on aggregate, but came closer to going through than the scoreline indicated. The 1-1 draw in the second leg at Pune’s Balewadi Stadium could have been 3-1, if not for a missed penalty in the first half and a spurned one-on-one in the second.
Signs of progress
Like the seniors — who played with nine men for over two-thirds of the first leg — the kids too had excuses to fall back on. This might not sound like much, but having excuses after defeat separates Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, to provide a cricketing analogy, from associate nations like Canada and the Netherlands. Becoming the footballing equivalent of Test cricket’s whipping boys is, at this point, the extent of India’s ambition. While even that remains a distant dream, there are signs of progress.
The attitude of the younger players — most of them toughened by a year at the Indian Arrows, the AIFF’s developmental squad in the I-League — has impressed a number of seniors.
“Some wonderful young talents like Raju Gaikwad, Laxmikant Kattimani and Jewel Raja have arrived in Indian football and their biggest plus point is that they don’t have any inferiority complex,” says goalkeeper Subrata Paul. “Seniors like me, Sunil Chhetri, Climax Lawrence, Samir Naik are always there to guide them. They are all good listeners and quick learners.”
It also helps that the Indian team prepares much better for competitive matches than before. Prior to the two-legged tie against UAE, India had a three-week camp at Delhi followed by friendlies against Maldives and Qatar.
“Going abroad for training and practice matches was almost unthinkable even five-six years ago,” says Chhetri. “We lost all our group league matches in the Asian Cup, but playing against some of the world’s best players certainly helped. And more international matches mean we can now take on any top Asian team without fear.”
A lot more exposure
Over the next few weeks, India — despite not having any competitive fixtures to look forward to for a while — will travel to the Caribbean to gain more exposure. “We will play four matches there against quality sides like Jamaica, Barbados and others,” says Paul. “These are sides that provide players to European leagues. So it would be a real opportunity for us to make a mark.”
Things were quite different a decade ago. When India — a talented side containing the likes of IM Vijayan, Jo Paul Ancheri and Baichung Bhutia in his prime — defeated UAE 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier in Bangalore in 2001 with minimal preparation. “We didn’t play any international friendlies then,” says Deepak Mondal, a mainstay of India’s backline for over a decade. “We just had a camp of around 15-20 days. It was under coach Stephen Constantine (2002-05) that we started playing friendlies. And after Bob Houghton arrived, we did it more often. It was totally different then compared to now. Even the facilities we had weren’t as good.”
Not that the current lot enjoy world class facilities, of course. Two days before their home leg, the Indian team trained on a school ground, with a cricket pitch in the middle. Chhetri’s time at the Kansas City Wizards showed him the gulf that still remains to be bridged. “There is no comparison. In Kansas, they have their separate training ground, top-class gym, and everything that footballers need,” says the 26-year-old striker. “Here in India, we barely have a proper football pitch. Most I-League clubs don’t have their own grounds.”
It isn’t just infrastructure that needs a makeover. It took the formation of the Indian Arrows for talents like Jeje and Jewel Raja Shaikh to get regular playing time and show their wares. A reserve or youth-team league would be an ideal stepping-stone for young talent, but only a handful of clubs have invested in youth development.
“Pune FC, Salgaocar and Vasco — these three clubs have a good youth development programme for players aged from 12 to 20. They look after the boys well,” says Brazilian playmaker Beto, who recently switched allegiance from Dempo to Churchill Brothers. “Otherwise, a lot of Indian players tend to start between 16 and 18.”
Two years ago, Beto and compatriot Barreto, the Mohun Bagan striker, started the Brasil Futebol Academia in Goa, where children under 12 develop their skills and awareness by playing futsal, before graduating to the football pitch. “We’ve been here for a long time, and seen a lot of talent go waste,” says Beto. “We didn’t want to leave without making a contribution.”
But even the combined contributions of all the major academies in the country — including the Tata Football Academy, the Sesa Academy in Goa and the Mohun Bagan-SAIL Academy — are barely plugging the gap. “It isn’t enough,” says Beto. “In Brazil, there’s an academy in every village.”
Big hurdles
The biggest hurdle that prevents investment in youth development or in better infrastructure is a lack of belief that there is a big enough fan-base for Indian football — it is this, in the long term, that will help generate returns.
There isn’t any lack of love for football as such, as evidenced by the proliferation of replica Barcelona and Liverpool jerseys on the streets, or the sheer numbers of Indian fans who watched the 2010 World Cup. And so, there’s little doubt whether stadiums would fill up if Argentina plays a friendly or if Blackburn Rovers come visiting. But can Indian football fill stadiums, or generate significant TV audiences?
There is one theory that non-stop access to the Messis and Rooneys on TV has drawn audiences away from their local stadiums. Some, however, believe that there’s a certain amount of reverse-osmosis in play as well.
“People sometimes blame European football for taking the attention away from the I-League and the national team, but the global game has helped local football tremendously,” says Atishay Agarwal, the editor of 90 Minutes, an Indian, football-only magazine launched last month. “Although fans usually become fans by following the international game, at some stage they do get curious about Indian football and where our country stands in the sport, and things begin from there.”
The turnout for the India-UAE game — or for most other India matches in recent years — would support Agarwal’s theory. But the I-League has struggled to draw crowds, except in a few centres. It isn’t clear how much of this is down to apathy, and how much has to do with scheduling — who would watch afternoon matches on weekdays? — and poor marketing on the part of clubs and the AIFF. Last season, the league went without a broadcast partner. At the end of the season, JCT FC disbanded.
Exciting times
Amidst this gloom, a couple of interesting developments showed the existence of a sizeable fan-base waiting to be tapped. Pune FC and Shillong’s Lajong FC launched their own channels — the former on YouTube, the latter on free-to-air television — to broadcast highlights and feature shows on their clubs. Since its launch last October, PFC TV has generated over 30,000 upload views. “Last year, PFC TV was among the hundred most subscribed YouTube channels in India,” says Chirag Tanna, Pune FC’s director of operations. “This season, we’ve made it fully HD.”
Pune FC have also made an effort to reach out to the local community, organising tournaments at the inter-school and inter-corporate levels. They also invite schools to attend their matches. “On average, I’d say we have around 700 schoolkids coming to watch each of our games,” says Tanna. These efforts have certainly helped attract a new generation of fans. At the time of writing, Pune FC’s official Facebook page has generated 26,080 ‘likes’, the highest among I-League clubs — East Bengal (15,544) and Mohun Bagan (12,975) are distant second and third.
It’s quite a triumph for a club with no history, from a non-traditional football centre. Somewhere in these defiantly out-of-the-box methods lies a clue for Indian football.
(With inputs from Shamik Chakrabarty)