How to increase the quality of football in South Asia?

[PlanetWarrior]

2end attempt:

Why do you think that south Asians are not capable of playing as a team?
Sure, South Asians are generally not as big as others, but there are plenty of teams from nations with similar characteristics which made it into the World Cup!

Size doesn't matter in football. Diego Maradona and a host of other strikers are testimony to that. If you read my post #23 I gave some tangible reasons for that. Basically, I listed the following issues which are a challenge to India/Pakistan and Bangladesh :-

• proper application of domestic development funds
• proper application of FIFA development funds
• moulding and grooming of young players and especially the under 13s as future players. They then play for international clubs such as Liverpool etc when they get recognition, inspire their contemporaries at home and that is the start to the honeymoon
• identifying and hiring the proper coaches to teach the youth
  
• teaching the youth team building in contact sport
• establishing if any reason exists why the youth from these nations can't professionally embrace contact sports as a formidable team. Is it cultural etc ?

The above are only some of the factors which if addressed would require indepth analysis and time

 

[Koovie]

I also don't know about football in India. There are many factors which retard the growth of these sports in these nations. Allow me to list some as a matter of fact :-

1. Cricket is a popular sport in all of these nations and is highly promoted by the respective governments which use up their sport development funds primarily for this sport and which have sporting administrations which rigidly apply whatever international development funds they receive for this sport. The same cannot be said for football. FIFA apportions a sizeable development fund internationally for football. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have never shown any positive products from this development fund
2. Team building in contact sports does not occur overnight. It takes years. The Baluch youth if geared properly from now could only possibly represent Pakistan on the international stage in about 20 years from now. None of the three nations which I listed made or are making any effort to commence moulding and forming any sort of youth teams currently
3. Moulding and grooming can only occur with an internationally recognized coach, definately a foreigner considering that none of the 3 nations have any recognized sportsmen in this field. None of the nations I mentioned have even commenced identifying such a coach.
4. As I mentioned earlier, contact sports which requires team effort has never been the forte' of these nations. The answer is obvious to the question as to why. It would seem that culturally or for some common reason, they cannot compete in contact sports requiring team effort

I agree that it will take much much time to improve the quality of Indian football to international levels, but I see some light at the end of the tunnel.

With each World Cup, the interest in football seems to raise drastically among Indians which gives me hope that the FIFA and the Indian corporate world might start to promote and sponsor Indian football.
Without this step, however, there is indeed no hope for us.... since it will cost high amounts of money to improve infrastructure, training and especially getting a renowned coach and his entire team.

 

[SAMEET]

screw soccer, our national game is hockey when r u guys planning to promote it

did you watch the world cup !

 

[PlanetWarrior]

I agree that it will take much much time to improve the quality of Indian football to international levels, but I see some light at the end of the tunnel.

With each World Cup, the interest in football seems to raise drastically among Indians which gives me hope that the FIFA and the Indian corporate world might start to promote and sponsor Indian football.
Without this step, however, there is indeed no hope for us.... since it will cost high amounts of money to improve infrastructure, training and especially getting a renowned coach and his entire team.

I must disagree with you there. The AIFF had a golden opportunity in the 1950s and 1960s to achieve a world class team. The decision was made to sacrifice football in favor of cricket. The one and obvious reason is that Pakistan during that time was focusing on cricket. Until this childish mentality of both nations is eroded, there is no such hope

 

[Koovie]

I think Indian Hockey Team is not bad. It was pathetic 3-4 years back. But I watched recent world cup and the performance was not bad. I mean they lost to good European teams by slight margin in last minute. They lost to No.1 team Australia very badly and Won on other Asian teams like Malaysia and South Korea. The Hockey league had helped players little bit and I hope in coming 5-7 years if the league continues and attracts some good foreign players then the standard of our players will improve also the money and sponsors for hockey will increase.

The Indian Hockey team is relatively decent, they won world cups and can compete on international levels.

Indian football on the other hand is simply below pathetic.

I must disagree with you there. The AIFF had a golden opportunity in the 1950s and 1960s to achieve a world class team. The decision was made to sacrifice football in favor of cricket. The one and obvious reason is that Pakistan during that time was focusing on cricket. Until this childish mentality of both nations is eroded, there is no such hope

But that was decades ago... times have changed and with each World Cup, more and more Indians have access to means to watch the matches and indeed do so. I remember some analyst on this matter saying that one minor reason for bringing the 2022 world cup to Qatar was to bring it closer to South Asia, so that more people from this region, especially Indians can watch it.

If the market is promising enough for the FIFA and our corporate world, we may expect that they put more emphasis and especially money into our football.... but as you said, that will take a very long time. But I am confident

 

[rockstarIN]

Guys Indian football league is coming up just like ipl. Sachin bought cochi team and gonna get Beckham as captain with fabiyano and other famous players. Kolkata was bought by ganguly and atlatico Madrid.

So wait til sept. When it starts. If still football is not picked up in India., then foot ball is not world popular game as more than billions ditched it. FifA to get the blame. They should give a birth to India and China a free ticket to world cups based on the world population.

 

[mahesh.]

Guys Indian football league is coming up just like ipl. Sachin bought cochi team and gonna get Beckham as captain with fabiyano and other famous players. Kolkata was bought by ganguly and atlatico Madrid.

So wait til sept. When it starts. If still football is not picked up in India., then foot ball is not world popular game as more than billions ditched it. FifA to get the blame. They should give a birth to India and China a free ticket to world cups based on the world population.

It will not become popular just for 1 year. Takes time. At least 4-5 years minimum. People should come to watch quality football instead of coming to see Sachin and Ganguly. I am hopeful for the football league.

 

[Zabaniyah]

I am restricting myself to Indians , Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. The fact remains that they are hopeless in football and other contact team sports for the reasons I gave earlier

One can be anything one wants to be. One has to simply envision it, and work toward it. But it'd be a long road. It has nothing to do with genetics.

 

[Koovie]

Sort of true, most of the India team is Nepalese

They are from Sikkim, the NE or are ethnic Nepalis but non of them is non Indian.
AFAIK, the FIFA made it compulsory for players to have the citizenship of their respective teams