Vishal Uppal assesses the state of sports in the country and
prospects of Indian Football team in the qualifiers.
The football in India is like a rare fever. It arrives once
in four years. The jerseys of popular players can be spotted on display windows
of outlets of sportswear brands. You can find youngsters siding with contending
teams by wearing their jerseys and watching the matches with mugs of beer in
bars in metropolitan cities. The frenzy is fuelled by media which for most of
the year promotes Cricket but switches to football owning to promotion meant
for merchandise sales. You can also spot youngsters getting coached in football
and playing in grounds that only see cricket for most part of the year.
However, the fan following and awareness of football is increasing
by leaps and bounds. Football is highly popular in few states in India. West
Bengal, north eastern and southern states take particular interest in football.
The football in India has been dominated by clubs sponsored by patron
industrial houses. The oldest club is Mohun Bagan A.C. and it is in existence since
1889. East Bengal F.C., Churchill Brothers F.C. of Goa and few others are
popular clubs in India. They compete in League Football and Durand Cup.
The football fraternity and fans are suddenly taking a
notice at Indian Football team. The team is performing well and beating or
drawing with Asian teams for some time. The hope for India qualifying for FIFA World
Cup 2022 to be hosted in Qatar is on upsurge. This came after India got placed
in Group E in second round Asian Qualifiers. The matches will start from
September 5. The team is clubbed with teams of Qatar, Oman, Afghanistan and
Bangladesh. Qatar is already qualified for the World Cup because of being a
host. India is seen as better side in matches against Afghanistan and
Bangladesh. India can also beat or draw with Qatar and Oman in its reigning
form.
Indian Head Coach Igor Stimac said that "It will be an
enormous challenge for your young team. We have been drawn into a very tough
group". He later said that “we need to respect every opposition”.
Football fans in India are almost sure of India moving to
third qualifying round that will begin in September 2020. The task to play in
FIFA World Cup will be tougher in third round as India may have to play strong
teams like Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Japan and Australia. The two top
teams in this qualifier will get a ticket to FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
The fourth round that starts in October 2021 will provide
opportunity to teams placed third in each group. But before we think of fourth
and fifth round we have to see how India cruises through second and third
round.
It is a tough road and India playing in FIFA World Cup 2022
is still unrealistic. However, we can hope considering how teams improve with
each passing match. The dream can also become reality if Indian origin players
playing in European Leagues can be convinced to play for India in near future.
But considering the improvement in overall facets of sporting in India, the
chances of hearing national anthem in coming World Cups are bright. I wish Sunil
Chhetri and his team best of luck for second round qualifiers and hope to see
them moving into third round.
Image Attribution: Fars News Agency [CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)]
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Sunil_Chhetri_%26_Anirudh_Thapa_Celebrating_goal.jpg
Description: Sunil Chhetri and Anirudh Thapa celebrating a goal in their group match against Thailand at 2019 AFC Asian Cup
Yeahh..India will qualify for fifa world cup and like cricket we fans will also support fifa.This time India has many great players backing like Sunil Chhetri,Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.
ReplyDeleteAll The best Team India 🇮🇳