Why is it that the Indian football team does not do a good job when it comes to qualification to the Olympics? What makes this question even more interesting is the sheer size of the country. The fact that the country cannot come up with eleven good football players out of its population of more than 1 billion individuals is a downright embarrassment. It is not as if the country cannot do well in team sports.

It recently hosted and won the cricket World Cup thereby becoming the first home team to achieve this honor. It has a strong hockey team and the team can, on a good day, surprise even the best in the world. However, it is a very temperamental team and there is no guarantee that it will do a good job as far as winning a medal at the Olympics is concerned.

The funny thing is that football has a very strong following amongst the Indians. Just check out youngsters in big cities and you will find that football is competing with other sports for attention and is enjoying a following that is comparable to the most popular sport in India. The London Olympics could have been a very good place for the Indian football team to make its presence felt.

After all, the United Kingdom has a high percentage of persons of Indian origin residing there. Unfortunately, the average Indian fan has no option but to continue rooting for other countries simply because his country never qualifies.

In all fairness, this issue is given serious thought once in four years. It is almost like the empty promises made by the bored and lazy husband about contacting Pest Control Watford services to get rid of the bird problem at home. The truth is that he is absolutely not interested in spending any money on this task. Sooner or later, the wife will have to step up and take charge to create a difference. The same rule applies to Indian football as well.

Once upon a time long ago, the city of Kolkatta, nee Calcutta, was the capital of India. It was also considered the Mecca of Indian football. The country’s capital eventually moved to New Delhi. History does not record if the people of the city wept or mourned this passage. It would well seem that a capital here or there could well be accepted with gentlemanly élan. But there are some things even a gentleman would baulk at letting go. In the case of Calcutta, it is football. The city kept its tenacious hold on the game – capital or no capital. Enigin scam tactics or other machinations are no match for a city that lives and breathes football.

Oh yes, there is that game of cricket that seems to have taken over the collective psyche of Indians. While the rest of the country goes into thunderous applause when the willow is wielded as it should be, a thoroughbred Kolkattan, or Bhadra Lok, will clap politely if only to display a sense of solidarity with the rest of the country. Appearances do matter and an obvious rift with the rest of the country’s brethren would not auger well for any who might be watching. His true heartthrob continues to be football. Every pass, shot, penalty in every game of every tournament is clinically analysed under a microscope. All players, including Renedy Singh, have to face the wrath of the people if they don’t play well. By merely stepping on to the field, the player is answerable to the every man on the street. Woe betide any player who so much as even thinks of not giving the game his all!

The rest of the country might display such passion only when faced with a personal insult that must be avenged at any cost – there are stories of feuds being fought for generations. But for the residents of the City of Joy, such mundane things hold no attachment; it is the game of football that courses through the veins of people.

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I don’t know about you, but I had a great time watching the UEFA Champions League final the other night. Not just because it was a great game, or because the players seemed to be wearing particularly brilliant suit fabrics. But because it put paid to all the talk about Barcelona being off their game, or losing their lustre after what they called the “El Fiasco” games against Real Madrid a few weeks back. Barcelona were simply superb. In fairness Manchester United weren’t in any way bad – after all, they were straight off the back of bringing the English league title back to Old Trafford for the nineteenth time, beating Liverpool’s record. It was just that Barcelona showed the world just how good they are. Messi’s goal was perhaps a little bit soft, although still a brilliant finish, but the overall performance was absolutely dominant.
So Barcelona gave a great performance, winning a crushing victory, at the same time as playing a particularly aesthetically pleasing version of the game. But let’s face it, we can’t all be as good as Barcelona, as much as we might like to be. So we can’t all necessarily go out on the pitch aiming to be “more than a club”, and becoming advocates for a particular way of playing the game of football. But this seems like an aspiration to aim for. Failing that though, I’m happy to get involved in a scenario which includes crunching tackles, lobbing the ball upfront, and all the other elements of the classic English game. After all, it’s winning that counts!

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Footballers seem to be wearing weirder and weirder outfits on the pitch. Aside from some of the bizarre strip designs (which they don’t really have any say over) a lot of players, Renedy Singh included, seem to like wearing those 2xu compression shorts that were designed for triathlon competitors. I know for some footballers, they’re essential for recovering from or preventing groin injuries, but so many seem to like wearing them, that I’ve started to wonder if it isn’t a bit of a fashion statement too?

Lots of players in the English Premier League had started wearing those “snoods” this winter – mainly the ones from abroad, to be honest, who would also wear gloves even in the milder spring weather! It became such an issue, with newspapers and commentators all drawing attention to the potential dangers that the English Football Association eventually took steps to ban them. I suppose the worry was that unscrupulous defenders (it was usually attacking players that wore the snood, for some reason) could grab hold of the material and use it to haul them back. Illegal and pretty painful too…

Still, nothing that any footballer has ever worn could match the crazy outfits worn by the Indian Premier League teams. The IPL has just kicked off again in India, and I ’d forgotten how garish and colourful some of the team uniforms are. Orange seems to be a popular colour this year, but once your eyes have adjusted to all that bright, flashy material, the competition has been great fun to watch already. Unsurprisingly, I’ll be supporting the Kolkata Knight Riders in this year’s IPL – after all, that’s now Renedy’s local team!

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Mention football and what springs to mind are images of South America and the United Kingdom. And of course, the popular clubs in these countries. This is not to imply that Indians used be to as Cricket obsessed as they are now. Not too long back, football enjoyed the same cult following as cricket does today. Every city, town and village had their local team and a clash between any of them resulted in people shutting shop to cheer their favourite teams and taunt the opposing team. Changing room benches in clubs, schools and colleges often turned into heated discussion rooms where every move was dissected to death.

So great was the passion that supporters of one club or team became sworn enemies, not just at the game but outside it too. Each group was vehement in their support and defended their teams even their shortcomings. The popular, and by default the good players, often had a fan following that could rival that of any famous cricketer today. And not without reason this die hard devotion; the players were well gifted in making the football heed their every whim and fancy. So much so that it seemed to have a life of its own as it seemed to follow the players’very feet! These were people whose talent was recognised at a very young age and absorbed into a team where it was further honed until their game seemed an art when they played.

In spite of the decline of the last two decades, there are still some talented players and fans who swear undying loyalty to the game. Though not followed as avidly as before, their presence provides a ray of life to a game that was once the passion of millions and which could, one day, make a comeback with a dazzling display of magical footwork, passes, feints and power packed shots.

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Much before cricket usurped all games to become the king of sports in India, there were other games that were followed and played passionately in every corner of the country. One of them was football. In fact, a match between arch rivals MohunBagan and East Bengal would often bring the entire state of west Bengal to a halt. Offices and roads would be deserted as people glued in to the TV and, earlier, to the radio. Every dribble, every pass and feint would be discussed and analysed in great details. It was not uncommon for people to come to blows over a difference of opinion!

Supporters of one team were often wary of the supporters of the other team. Posters of favourite players adorned office walls and found pride of place next to images of the gods! Budding players would invariably have jerseys with their favourite players'name and number in their lockers ready to be donned at a moment’s notice.

These Clubs often took a leaf out of the premier English Clubs and brought in players from distant lands in an effort to strengthen their team and consolidate their position. Invariably, most of the foreign players were from Africa. These players were renowned for their blistering speed on the field and powerful kicks. They also brought in a sense of achievement for the team, which having hitred them for a fat fee, was eager to show them off.

Sadly, today the game has been relegated to the back with the big bucks being heaped on Cricket. For the discerning, the land of over a billion has many budding players who, given the proper training and backing, is a natural Pele or a Maradona. After all, this was once a passion for people of all ages all the way from Ferokh in Kerala to Faridabad in Haryana.

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I know when it comes to India most people think that there is only one sport that is enjoyed over there. But that’s not the fact. In fact, beside cricket there are many other sports that are played in the country like hockey, kabaddi and football. If you know India just through the media, then you will know that it recently won the cricket world cup and almost all are celebrating the victory. However, you will be surprised to know that India also has a mad following for football. The only reason it does not come up in the media is because the Indian football team is really not that great.

If you don’t believe me, then all you have to do is make some Indian friends on facebook, especially the ones from southern and eastern India. People over here are diehard fans of football and this is something you will witness even on social networking sites where the number of comments relating to football greatly increase when major football teams like Brazil, Italy or Spain are playing

It’s not that India does not have a national football team, but it’s just the team has not achieved much on the international arena. I guess when the Indian football team would be effective internationally, then the football fans might be able to divert their following to Indian footballers, instead of Messi, Ronaldino and other greats of the game. Till then young aspiring Indian footballers will have to enjoy pictures of Non-Indian football stars while sitting on the locker room benches and preparing for practice. Will India have an effective football team in future, I think yes, but if you were to ask me if it could happen soon I would certainly say not in the next 5 years. Honestly, this is a very sad situation for the Indian football fans.

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This type of lashing out should not be tolerated in the professional game. Role models at the height of the sport should not be allowed to get away with just a red card for such incidents of foul play. You may think that I am going a bit far, and say that it is a contact sport and injuries happen, but these kind are not accidents! A man being paid so much money to do his job should be able to keep his temper in check and get on with it. It would not happen in any other walk of life!

The game has got to be cleaned up before we see more serious injuries from indisciplined tackles.

Everyone knows that there have been high profile cases of broken legs etc from bad challenges and this will always happen in a contact sport, however it is possible to clamp down on the occurrence of mindless kicking out and elbowing etc. If Rooney or Barton and others had to pay a month’s wages into a charity to help the victims of sporting injuries every time they received a red card for violent conduct, maybe we would see the number of cases half!

It does not look good for England and it does not look good for Manchester United. Rooney has always been known for playing on the edge, but if he crosses the line too many times he risks denting his legacy. This would be a real shame.

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The Indian football team was to play a friendly match against Barbados and had traveled to West Indies for this purpose. The arrangements were found to be inadequate and the management had to put its foot down and insist on better accommodation and facilities for the tour to continue.

The representatives of the organization managing football in Barbados claim that they satisfied all the demands of the football federation. In fact, the All India Football Federation too was pleased with the new arrangements. However, the new coach of the Indian football team refused to continue and insisted that the tour should be canceled immediately.

Is this a behavior on the part of the football coach justified? On one hand, expecting players to adjust despite having been promised a good place to stay does not make sense. In such a scenario, the football coach cannot be blamed for taking this extreme step. I came across this news when checking the prices of diesel Bristol and became very concerned. The Indian football team, despite its talent, is not ranked very high in the world.

This kind of behavior is only going to spread the word that Indian football team is very arrogant and uncompromising. The last thing we want is for a few more practice tools to be called out simply because of logistical difficulties.

The more India plays better will be its chances of improving its rankings. Perhaps the coach should have understood that discretion is the better part of valor and should have accepted the new arrangements provided they were good enough.

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It’s easy to get down about football sometimes. Things don’t always work out how you expected in the beautiful game, do they? In fact, sometimes it can seem like the exact thing you are wishing for goes wrong the moment you start pinning all your dreams on it.

But alas, something good has happened, and now, finally, we have something excellent to cheer about where Indian football is concerned. (Yes, we know we’re greedy and that India does generally do well, but we’d be nowhere without the fighting spirit, right? Well, that’s what

Indian Barry from great hr software says, and if he says that, you don’t want to argue with him because he wears as much as two grown large men.)

We’re talking about the Indian under 13 football team, of course. Because recently they’ve achieved a surprising and excellent result in the Asian Football Confederation Youth Festival (which happened in Yazd, Iran, if you didn’t know). Incidentally, the location of the Festival, Iran, is known universally as one of the leading football nations – but we’re sure you know that. After all, you must know about your Indian footie or else you wouldn’t have found out about this page!

Even though India isn’t new to receiving these kind of accolades, it’s still pretty fantastic to think that the awards held by the veterans are being continued

In the festival, teams from Sri Lanka, Bhutan and India all appeared to fight it out.

But it was India who won out by playing exceptionally well: 3 Indian players made the best-players rank, and were also considered worthy enough to be thought of as most skilful.

If you want to know specifically who were held up as the ’Best Players’, then look no furthers than the ace striker Lalremruata and midfielders Sandip and Lalmuanzova Bhattacherjee.

Not bad, considering how brutal the competition was!

Actually, let’s be honest, this is all pretty amazing. Even though India isn’t new to receiving these kind of accolades, it’s still pretty fantastic to think that the awards held by the veterans are being continued with the new generation.

The most outstanding wins, of course, came against the mighty Sri Lanka and Bhutan. The under 13s really played out of their skin here, by attacking with their usual ferocious strategy, eventually earning them a 8-0 win over Sri Lanka and a 7-0 win over Bhutan.

Much more happened besides this, of course, but we could go on all day about these amazing results (and we probably would, but alas we have to go and watch some more football!).

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