FIFA
RANKING
India has reached its worst position in
football. As per the latest FIFA ranking, India’s position is 173 out of 209.
Over the years, there has been a steady decline in the standard of Indian football
and during the last 20 years we have fallen from 100 to 173. Football was the
most popular sport in the country till few years ago and several national level
tournaments were being held at various parts of the country. Even in a tiny
state like Kerala 7 national level tournaments were being held. In other words,
7 out of 10 district headquarters were hosting major tournaments. In those
days, matches were being played in front of jam packed gallery and many had to
return disappointed without getting ticket. DCM trophy football tournament was
one of the prestigious tournaments in the country and many popular teams from
South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Iran etc used to participate in that
tournament. Even the king of football Pele representing Cosmos Club New York participated
n a friendly match with Mohun Bagan at salt lake stadium Calcutta.
Golden era of Indian
football was in the sixties. India was soccer champions at 1962. Jakarta Asian
games. India reached quarter finals of
1960 Rome Olympics and we were in a tough group comprising Hungary, France and Peru.
We lost to Hungary by a narrow margin of 2-1 and drew 1-1 with powerful France.
We can remember those days with
nostalgia only. Today we find it difficult to beat minnows like Nepal, Bhutan
etc. in SAF games.
There was a proposal
to bid for world cup football. For god’s sake let us not do that blunder. Host
team will automatically qualify for the final round matches. We will have to
helplessly watch the massacre of the host. It will only help to create some
world records like maximum number of goals in a match, maximum goals conceded
by a team etc. Moreover conducting a world cup will entail enormous expenditure
which will be followed by another major scam.
When will India be
able to regain a semblance of its glorious past?
No comments:
Post a Comment