Mumbai, India – For many years, India has lived with the label of being the “sleeping big” of soccer.
With a inhabitants of 1.4 billion, highest on this planet, there’s a prevailing sentiment that India is underrepresented in worldwide soccer.
In comparison with its dominance in cricket, the nation lags far behind in soccer and is but to qualify for a FIFA World Cup.
Whereas former FIFA president Sepp Blatter optimistically declared in 2012 that the “sleeping big is beginning to get up,” the truth in 2024 paints a special image.
At the moment positioned 102nd within the FIFA rankings and never even among the many high 10 sides in Asia, India continues to be within the midst of its soccer awakening and struggling to emerge from its slumber, specialists argue.
“India will not be an enormous in soccer as a result of they haven’t finished something on the worldwide entrance for years,” Stephen Constantine, former head coach of the Indian males’s soccer group, informed Al Jazeera.
Indian soccer basked in glory within the Nineteen Fifties and Nineteen Sixties, clinching gold on the 1951 and 1962 Asian Video games and securing a commendable fourth-place end on the 1956 Summer season Olympics.
Nonetheless, since that illustrious interval, India’s efficiency on the continental stage has been lacklustre, with the group failing to progress previous the group stage on the Asian Cup in 1984, 2011 and 2019.
Throughout their final marketing campaign in 2019, the group raised followers’ expectations with a 4-1 win over Thailand within the opening recreation, however losses towards the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain meant India missed qualifying for the subsequent spherical as soon as once more.
Now beneath coach Igor Stimac, India faces a difficult marketing campaign on the Asian Cup, the place the lads in blue are grouped with groups ranked above them: Australia, Syria and Uzbekistan.
The group’s fearless method beneath Stimac has impressed followers, however the coach sparked controversy in November when he stated “I don’t take into account the Asian Cup as such an vital match”.
Constantine, who took cost of India in 2002-05 and 2015-19, was shocked at Stimac’s remarks.
“It’s the most important match that India goes to play. What’s extra vital than that?” Constantine stated.
Two sleeps away.. 🇮🇳#AsianCup2023 🏆 #BlueTigers 🐯 #IndianFootball ⚽ pic.twitter.com/190vDWk52z
— Indian Soccer Workforce (@IndianFootball) January 11, 2024
‘Harm limitation towards Australia’
India’s 26-member squad for the Asian Cup is led by the nation’s highest goal-scorer, Sunil Chhetri, and contains the identical core group of gamers that Stimac has labored with since taking up. All squad members play for golf equipment within the Indian Tremendous League (ISL), the nation’s high division.
Pradhyum Reddy, an Indian soccer coach, expects followers to have excessive hopes for Stimac’s aspect on the Asian Cup, however says the highway to outcomes is not going to be simple.
India’s marketing campaign opener is towards Australia, which reached the spherical of 16 on the Qatar World Cup 2022 earlier than being knocked out by eventual champions Argentina.
“Australia are seasoned opponents who have gotten their core group enjoying in Europe,” Reddy informed Al Jazeera.
“However the distinction is that beneath Stimac, India performs on the entrance foot, so gamers will try to press Australia and make life troublesome for them – possibly even trigger them a couple of issues, however I don’t suppose we’ll get any pleasure out of that recreation.
“It must be about injury limitation towards Australia. Don’t lose by greater than what the others did,” added Reddy.
Former India participant Darren Caldeira believes his nation’s finest likelihood of incomes factors will likely be towards 91st-ranked Syria, as Uzbekistan (ranked 68th) may current more durable challenges.
“Nobody is speaking an excessive amount of about Uzbekistan, however they’re a rising powerhouse in central Asia,” Caldeira informed Al Jazeera. “They’ve some actually good gamers, particularly, Abdukodir Khusanov,” he added, referring to the 19-year-old Uzbek defender who performs for Ligue 1 membership Lens in France.
The gulf is getting larger
Within the lead-up to the Asian Cup, India received three tournaments in 2023, together with the SAFF Championship in July, which featured eight groups from South Asia.
Other than Kyrgyzstan, all opponents that India confronted throughout the three tournaments are ranked beneath it. This highlights India’s tendency to play towards weaker-ranked opponents – a longstanding concern in Indian soccer.
“We have to play extra video games towards better-ranked nations,” stated former midfielder Caldeira, who’s now the director of soccer at top-tier Indian membership Bengaluru FC.
“Perhaps there was a terror up to now, fearing the outcome, however for us to enhance we should take dangers and problem ourselves towards high quality opponents,” he added.
Reddy, CEO of third-tier Indian membership Dempo, stated the group’s Asian Cup qualification and different achievements masks the problems plaguing the game at residence.
“We’ve improved considerably within the final decade … However comparatively, I don’t suppose we’ve improved as a lot as different regional groups together with Uzbekistan, Thailand and Vietnam,” Reddy stated.
“And definitely not as a lot as Japan or South Korea – the gulf has received larger.”
Japan is at the moment the top-ranked Asian aspect adopted by Iran and South Korea in second and third respectively, whereas Australia and Saudi Arabia make up the highest 5. India is 18th on the checklist.
Former India coach Constantine blamed India’s gradual progress on a scarcity of participant growth.
“After I got here to India in 2002, I realised that there’s expertise however we weren’t in search of it in the correct locations. And once we did, we weren’t growing them. Because of this India has not gone to the heights we imagined,” stated Constantine, the present Pakistan coach.
“In the intervening time, once you have a look at the large image, we don’t dominate within the area. So, in case you are not dominating within the area, how do you anticipate to dominate elsewhere?”
Poor high quality of teaching at varied ranges, absence of a strong league and a scarcity of recreation time for gamers have hampered the progress of home soccer.
Constantine, an UEFA Professional Licence holder and FIFA teacher, emphasised the impression of poor teaching on India’s future and questioned the nation’s reliance on overseas coaches who might not prioritise the event of native expertise.
“If we don’t care concerning the growth of Indian coaches, then how are we going to develop our gamers?” Constantine requested. “We should deal with the event of Indian coaches in any respect ranges and demand on high quality, not amount.”
Reddy, who has labored with a number of ISL golf equipment, advocates for a nine-month league, aligning with worldwide requirements, versus the prevailing six-month ISL with 12 groups. He additionally emphasised the shortage of recreation time within the decrease divisions of Indian soccer.
“Within the I-League 2 [third tier] and youth leagues, it’s comical how little soccer we play,” Reddy stated. “You evaluate that with youngsters in Japan, and the way a lot they play in highschool and faculties, it far exceeds what we’re doing on the semi-professional degree.”
Caldeira, who beforehand performed within the ISL, stated the league has helped the expansion of Indian soccer by bringing in professionalism that was lacking earlier.
“Prior to now, we had quite a lot of good high quality footballers, however now we’re getting high quality footballers coupled with athletes,” he added. “I’ve performed with quite a lot of good footballers who had been technically fairly good, however when it comes to physicality, they in all probability weren’t pretty much as good.
“However now you’re attending to see footballers who can run round for 90 minutes. After which after they have the ball they produce magic.”
Reddy, however, argued that the ISL has not made a major change.
“In the event you had been to calculate how a lot cash had been invested in ISL, a lot has exited Indian shores as a result of that cash has been paid to overseas coaches and marquee gamers, it’s cash that’s not within the Indian ecosystem,” Reddy defined.
“It will have been higher having that cash being pumped into Indian soccer in a manner that it could develop and go away a tangible asset.”
Describing India as “minnows”, Reddy stated that the one manner the nation can dream of enjoying on the World Cup is by constantly acting at main youth tournaments.
“We’ve by no means certified for an AFC U-23 match or the U-17 and U-20 World Cup on benefit,” Reddy stated. “So till we attain that degree, the place we’re bringing in groups which are recurrently enjoying continental competitors and in any respect ranges on benefit, the remainder is simply hyperbole.”