As a sports cricket has captivated the awe of most of the Indian population. It seems unlikely that Football will ever displace the prominence that cricket has established but might it one day challenge the status-quo for the affection of over 1.4 billion people.
Yan Danda plays in the Scottish Premiership for the club Ross County, which is an unusual occurrence in European football. In theory, this makes him eligible to play for India nationally. However, the situation is complicated. Indian citizenship regulations prohibit dual nationality, although Danda is an OCI holder, which falls short of full citizenship. Notionally, Danda would have to nullify his British passport to represent India, which would consequently result in him being unable to play in Britain due to the inability of Indian footballers to gain work permits in Britain, owing to India's mediocre FIFA rankings.
Logic would suggest that it should not be an uphill task to set up a team of 11 players from a population of 1.4 billion, but this is the Achilles' heel stagnating the progress of Indian football. Despite the men's side winning the Asian championships in 1951 and 1962 and finishing a remarkable 4th place at the 1956 Olympics, India has never participated in a senior FIFA World Cup. The men's team did qualify in 1950; however, they had to withdraw due to the lack of logistical support by the Football Association. In the men's FIFA ranking, India is on an upward trajectory; however, they still languish behind countries like Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon, which represent less than 1% of India's population. The raw population is of limited significance, though. It is more about coaching and football education.
As was quoted by Stephen Constantine, the coach of India's men's football team, under whose stewardship the side improved its FIFA ranking from 173rd in the world to 96th, "If you do not have decent coaches, you would not have decent players." There are other startling factors too that contribute to the mediocrity. The Indian Super League, for instance, does provide a platform for the country's brightest talent to blossom. However, with only 20 league games in a season, the skewed number of games in comparison to leagues in Asia results in Indian players being off the pace against their counterparts. FIFA's decision to expand the World Cup to 48 teams will certainly favor India's fortunes. The 2026 World Cup will have 8 guaranteed spots for Asian teams, up from 4 as of now.
The Bandra-Kurla complex in Mumbai is the base of the footballing operations managed by Reliance Industries, a conglomerate which already is a pivotal player in cricket and where the evolution of Indian football is masterminded. Reliance's objective is to play in the World Cup as early as possible. People have realized that it is not possible to change the culture of the country in an instance, citing China's attempt at growing the sport inorganically through heavy state investment with the aim of attempting footballing culture at a rapid pace, which capitulated massively, reaping no visible results. Indian football, under the stewardship of Reliance, has adopted a more sustainable approach. There is no attempt to sugarcoat the country's abysmal record in football. Barely any Indian-born footballers play outside the country professionally, and some who have tried have also struggled.
Reliance's focus of investment is on coaching and developing infrastructure. One of the prominent stumbling blocks it faces is that Delhi, the center of political power, and Mumbai, the financial capital, are not exuberant footballing hotbeds. Reliance has had to set up satellite academies and centers in the Northeast, where football is regarded as the primary sport for the population of that region. The objective is to target those areas where football either surpasses or has similar fanfare to cricket.
Football is growing evidently, especially due to easy access to Premier League broadcasts. The opening week of the 2022-23 Premier League season saw a 95% increase in viewership compared to the previous week. Most people in India watch the Premier League on their smartphones, aided by the low cost of phones and reasonable internet charges. Just as radio and color TV broadcasts elevated the popularity of cricket, new technology might have the same impact on football. The view on football currently is that the game is rapidly being indoctrinated among the youth of the country and is embedded in its culture
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