Football on the subcontinent

Gosh, I haven't blogged here in ages. I'm a personal assistant, and anyone with experience in that line of work knows of the time it takes. I don't mind though, I'm quite fond of my job.

At the moment my chronic insomnia is driving me insane and I felt a strange urge to write about Indian football. I'm not sure why, I'm not Indian nor do I have any connection to India, but I am intrigued by the state of football outside of it's traditional bastions of power.

Despite it's status as the world's second most populous nation, India is rarely ever considered a sporting powerhouse. In many ways this statement is unfair, as India is one of cricket's foremost powers and has been an historical power in field hockey. However, despite successes in other sports, India has never fared well in the arena of football.

Indian football suffers largely from a lack of funds and infrastructure. Many Indian football supporters will say that they feel football is largely ignored by authorities in favor of cricket, and occasionally field hockey. These criticisms are not without merit when one compares India's publicly owned cricket venues to their football counterparts, outwith Salt Lake Stadium the difference is almost night and day. Because of this it appears that Indian football will not be able to depend upon governmental assistance and therefore the vital changes to the game must come from within. And slowly, they are...

In 2007 the All India Football Federation (or AIFF) announced the formation of the I-League. The idea behind the I-League is to make football a truly professional sport in India, while many of the top clubs in the old National Football League did pay players, the lower clubs were rather questionable, the introduction of the I-League was meant to remedy this.

As with anything, the I-League has not been without it's detractors. That said, these voiced seem to have been drowned out by those in support of the new league, including sponsors willing to inject much needed sums of money into the game.

While the game is improving with the introduction of the I-League, it still suffers from a lack of reach at the highest level. Despite being India's 4th smallest state in terms of population, and smallest in terms of area, Goa supplies four of the I-League First Division's twelve clubs. India's two largest cities, Mumbai and Kolkata together account for a further seven, while only one other city (Phagwara, Punjab) boasts a top level club. That said, Kolkata is the heart of Indian football, and Goa the soul, so these areas are obviously going to have more clubs than others. But in order to grow the sport the AIFF must help develop it all through-out the nation and foster interest in new areas, but at the same time, they mustn't lose their soul

In conclusion, while they're some way off from challenging the likes of Germany and Brazil, or even Korea or Japan, India is no longer in football's dark ages. Recently India was award a qualifying spot in the AFC Champions League,  on Feb. 25 Goa's Dempo will face off with Sharjah from the United Arab Emirates. The UAE is actually a minor club power in Asian football, so it will be a real test of Dempo, and India's mettle.