Cricket-crazy India is now making a mark on the world’s most popular sport.
The country’s national men’s team are currently ranked 99th in the world football (Fifa) rankings, their best performance in the past five years. They were ranked 135 in 2016 and 108 in 2019. They won ability to crack the top 100 has largely been due to a record ninth South Asian Football Federation Championship (SAFF) title in July this year.
The Blue Tigers also boast the fourth-highest international scorer of all time: Captain and Bengaluru FC’s 38-year-old striker Sunil Chhetri.
With 92 goals, he is behind only Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (123), former Iran striker Ali Daei (109) and Argentinian Lionel Messi (103) in the table.
India have qualified for the AFC Asian Cup twice in the last four editions, after failing to make it to Asia’s biggest football tournament for national teams between 1984 and 2011.
The country’s domestic leagues, including the top-tier Indian Super League (ISL), are picking up as well.
While the US Major League and Chinese Super League failed to live up to the early promise, the Indian Super League (ISL), the top tier of Indian football, is showing signs of gradual progress.
Its focus on developing infrastructure has helped, said veteran sports presenter and commentator John Dykes, who has covered Indian football in the past. “The most important innovation was to insist on grassroots investment by the franchisees. , and I knew at the time that the initial glitz and glamour around the league would give way to a few administrative headaches and a natural lessening of interest. “But, by focusing on the longer-term in grassroots investment, the authorities were pursuing a path that had the potential to pay dividends down the road for India’s national teams. “Long after Freddie Ljungberg and Luis Garcia, David James and Nicolas Anelka have moved on from India,I think we are seeing tangible results in terms of the game’s broader appeal.”
The ISL got the ball rolling in 2013 with veteran international stars. It now has an impressive local flavour.
According to the Olympics website, currently an ISL club can sign up to six foreign players. One of them has to be from an Asian Football Confederation (AFC)-affiliated nation.
In an ISL match, a club can field a maximum of only up to four overseas players at any time, including one player from an AFC nation.
During its inaugural year (2014), teams were allowed to sign a maximum of 11 overseas players, while up to six foreign players could feature in a playing 11 at any given time.
The ISL began as a closed league, similar to the US major league. Ibut is now moving to a promotion and relegation system that European football fans are used to. The champions of the second tier I-league, the of Indian football, will be promoted to the ISL from this season onwards.
After consultations with the AFC, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) announced that the I-League winners will get “direct slots” in the ISL from 2022 onwards and that there would be relegation starting with the 2024-25 season.
It has taken a little longer to implement the promotion system. RoundGlass Punjab FC are the first promoted team to compete in the new ISL season that is set to kick off next month.
It is not to say that India’sThe domestic football scene may not be entirely rosy, but India is headed in the right direction, says Rohit Ramesh, owner of former I-league club Chennai City FC.
“Right now, clubs still depend on government funding, but it is beginning to look healthy and clubs are focused on developing their infrastructure (training facilities, stadiums and dressing rooms),” he said. “Most clubs are working towards their infrastructure for the betterment of their own future.”
Although Chennai City are not competing in the ISL or I-league at the moment, their I-league win in 2019 attracted international attention when the AIFF launched an inquiry into their championship decider aginst Minerva, after the match commissioner expressed suspicion. Chennai were cleared of any wrongdoing later.
Any doubt of India not having enough football talent was quashed by Singaporean Akbar Nawas, who formerly coached Chennai City and is now head coach at Thailand’s League 1 side Nakhon Pathon.
“Players in the south have a lot of raw skill and it is only the tactical side of their game that needed improving. A lot of coaches are trying to implement their school of thought and they seem to be succeeding right now. Indian football has progressed by leaps and bounds,” said Akbar, the first Singaporean to coach a Thai top division side.
Some Indian clubs even have a strong social media presence now. ISL club Kerala Blasters are one of the top 100 most followed football clubs in the world, according to a report published by News18 and other websites recently. They have some 3.4 million followers on Instagram alone. Domestic games are attracting bigger crowds too.
Chennaiyin FC defender Ajith Kumar said: ISL games are now being played in packed stadiums.“Stadiums used to have 5,000 to 7,000 fans when I first became a professional footballer (in 2018),” said 26-year-old. “Now a stadium can have up to about 60,000 fans.”Ajith, a former teammate of Chhetri at Bengaluru, explained how players have benefited from the foreign coaches plying their trade in India.“We have top notch strength and condition coaches. Almost all coaches in the league are foreign. They have taught local professional footballers the importance of taking care of their body (gym, workouts and diet). “Football was pretty much an amateur sport until foreign coaches helped develop it in India.”
With so much progress domestically and the national team showing significant improvement under Croat coach and former English Premier League player Igor Stimac, it may not be too long before India start dreaming about qualifying for the Fifa World Cup again.
India famously qualified for the 1950 edition only to withdraw later because the players were not used to playing with boots.
India are currently drawn in group A of the 2026 World Cup Qualification AFC second round along with Qatar, Afghanistan or Mongolia and Kuwait. They defeated Kuwait in the SAFF Cup final recently.
“Please stand by us. Have faith. We will give beautiful football,” promised Stimac in an interview with India Today, ahead of next month’s Asian Games football tournament in Hangzhou, China.
