Why Is Football Not Popular In India?

    • Ashwin Moncy
    • Publish Date: Jun 6 2018 5:12PM
    • |
    • Updated Date: Jun 7 2018 12:00PM
Why Is Football Not Popular In India?

Sunil Chhetri, one of the greatest footballers that India has produced, recently made an impassioned plea to all the fans of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo — "abuse us, criticise us but please come to watch the Indian national team play."
 
With less than two weeks left for World Cup football to begin and broadcasters urging fans of the 'beautiful game' to profess their love for their "doosri country" via hashtags, country's all-time highest goal-getter demanded some love and affection for their 'first country'. India, who have improved their ranking to 97 in current Fifa chart, routed Chinese Taipei 5-0 on Friday in the opening game of the four-nation tournament with less than 2000 fans watching from the stands.

Chhetri had a request for all the arm-chair critics of Indian football -- please abuse but make the 'Blue Tigers' feel relevant. "I mean it's not fun to criticise and abuse on internet. Come to the stadium, do it on our face, scream at us, shout at us, abuse us, who knows one day we might change you guys, you might start cheering for us. You guys have no idea how important you guys are and how important your support is," the skipper appealed.  (PTI) 

Ashwin talked to youngsters on what ails Indian Football...

1) Lack of funding is a main issue in this sport. Huge amount of money is needed in this sport but people are not ready to Fund or sponsor the Indian team due to which they are not able to increase the quality of the game. 
Jibin Biju, a student of Trinity college.

2) Lack of media coverage is another problem for football not being popular in India. As if there is a match of the Indian cricket team, it is telecasted  in many telivison channels like start sports ,star max etc but if there is match of Indian football team then it is shown in either one TV channel or non of them .Due to this less media coverage in India cricket is preferred more than that of FOOTBALL 
Leon Babu, a class 12th student.

3) Guidance is not given to the people who want to play football at a higher level. There are many good players in each state of the country but most of the people have a problem of less guidance. No. of football clubs are also very less compared to that of football. 
Shone,  a student of Delhi university.
 
4) In cricket the players get a huge amount of money to play for the team which is a motivation for the players where as the players of football get a minimum amount of money to play in the Indian team due to which people are not interested to divert their courier into football. This problem is just in India, in other countries the players are given a huge amount to play for their team. 
Alfin, a class 10th student

What do you think? Let's know your views in the comments section below.

 

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Comments

Amogha M Koulapure STJ PU COLLEGE

Football- A game that is played, adored and ardently followed by millions across the globe. A game that is synonymous to religion for many. Despite being the most popular sport in the world, the beautiful game is hardly cared for in India with the exception of the likes of West Bengal, Goa, Kerala and the North East states ,where football is equally, if not more popular than cricket.

Amogha M Koulapure STJ PU COLLEGE

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter once called India a sleeping giant, and he was right in saying so. Experts all across the globe agree to the fact that India, with its population of 1.2 Billion, has nothing but underachieved on the global stage. India has never qualified for the FIFA world cup, a fact that continues to shame all Indians alike.

Amogha M Koulapure STJ PU COLLEGE

Things, though, could have been different. India had qualified by default for the 1950 FIFA World Cup finals as a result of the withdrawal of all of its scheduled opponents. The governing body All India Football Federation (AIFF) decided against going to the World Cup, being unable to understand the importance of the event at that time, a decision that it continues to rue even today.

Amogha M Koulapure STJ PU COLLEGE

One of the biggest reasons why football is neglected in India is because of the unmatched popularity of cricket in the country. India is a country that eats, sleeps and lives cricket where cricket is considered to be a religion, and cricketers gods. The Indian cricket team has enjoyed its fair share of success over the years, and is one of the best in the business having won 2 World Cups (1983 and 2011).

Amogha M Koulapure STJ PU COLLEGE

On the flipside, the Indian football team last tasted major success in 1962 Asian Games where it won a gold medal. The stories, when compared, are starkly juxtaposed. While the former is a story of rags to riches, the latter just the opposite.

Amogha M Koulapure STJ PU COLLEGE

In sports, popularity tends to be directly proportional to the amount of success achieved. The reason why clubs like Barcelona and Manchester United have huge fan bases across continents. The Indian football team has failed to attract the interest of the masses because of its constant failure over the course of time, something that cannot be denied.

Amogha M Koulapure STJ PU COLLEGE

With the introduction of football leagues like the Indian Super League (ISL) which has not only attracted significant corporate funding, but also led to considerable improvement in infrastructure, we can only hope for the very best. Drastic measures must be taken at the grassroots level by promoting world class academies and encouraging more and more kids to take up football as a career.

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