Why India Sucks at Football

India is the most populus country in the world and has a strong sporting culture, with multiple cricket world cups to its name, so how on earth does it suck at football? I figured there had to be a reason, I mean India had intense exposure to british culture for a long time, so at what point did football just fade out of the culture? It turns out it was NOT right away.

It is amazing that a country with so much exposure to the sport and so many people hasn’t been able to play in one World Cup. China, much maligned, has even managed to do that. With the expansion to the World Cup format there will be more opportunities than ever and India might finally have a chance to get to the world’s biggest sporting stage.

Much Love,
The Zealand

Sources
► the Athletic
► Al Jazeera
► East Bengal Club Records
► Indian Express
► Wikipedia

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[xpertd]

I am a teen from india, and the love for the sport is developing at the rate it is very visible to me. I remember when I was younger there were no groups of children playing football, now everywhere I see someone playing the sport or having a club to die for. Sadly those clubs are never Indian and professional football has a long way to go in this country, but it is better than it has ever been.

[masternoel]

They just need a Bollywood movie to promote football

[biswaroopmukherjee]

As an Indian, lack of infrastructure and investment in the grassroot level are the primary causes behind this. The interest and passion are definitely there.

[DwightSchrutes]

Michael Chopra tried to play for India too but couldn't because of dual citizenship and this is a player that played in the English Premier League

[mightylion]

The problem here is the lack of investment in football compared to cricket. My generation is the first Indian generation where football is also liked all over the country. In my dad’s generation most Indians bar a few states like goa West Bengal and Kerala didn’t really care much for football. India has done amazingly with grassroots in cricket. They have the players to field multiple national teams all capable of competing for the top. Such investment is needed into the grassroots for football as well 😊

[sayandas]

Thank you @zealand, for putting it out there . As as Indian fan, I sincerely hope AIFF gets things in order. Love your content

[Number-wqfq]

The thing with Syed Abdul Rahim was that players said he was like a friend to them, I can go on and on about him (since I've spent way too long researching him), but will give one instance that I read about:
Before the 1962 Asian Games final, our players couldn't sleep so decided to meet in the hotel lobby late at night. What they didn't know, however, was that Syed Abdul Rahim was on the stairs smoking a cigarette. Rather than berating his players on being late, he told them to come take a walk with him. He knew his health was deteriorating and this would be one of, if not his last tournament, and told them "I want one gift from you all, a gold medal tomorrow". The next day, we went on to win the trophy.
Even before the final, we had criticized the hosts for not allowing certain countries to attend, so the host fans were booing us. So Rahim made the decision to ditch the offside trap since players likely wouldn't hear the referee's whistle. Furthermore, our best defender in history, Jarnail Singh, had picked up a head injury in the previous match so couldn't head the ball. However, in his college days Jarnail had played at striker, so as a psychological advantage, and due to being a massive physical presence, Syed Abdul Rahim played him up top. Who scored the winning goal in that final? Jarnail Singh.

[aqualaqua]

Great video. Indian football definitely is lacking behind from other asian nations but there is some hope at least for the future. Developments in domestic leagues and identifying talent recently have been great and I wouldn't surprised if India can one day turn their fortunes around

[insertnamehere]

My dad and grandpa watched India defeat Australia 4-2 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in the 1956 Games and most of the Indian side played barefoot.

India also toured Australia before and after WWII and played friendlies against the Socceroos & other state sides.

[honestjohn]

I'm managing India on fm23 just to have hindi as one of my languages. (Don't ask). I have indian league loaded but all my young players are coming through in the USA. I'm having to convince them to play for me.
Syed hernandez-fernandez is my best player BTW.😂

[adityadebnath]

India had its first football league in 1898 as Calcutta Football League which started just 10 years after the English League. But it was contested only by teams from Kolkata and surrounding areas mostly by British regiments with the first inclusion of Indian 'native' clubs in 1914. It also had a 2nd Division by 1905.

Durand Cup is the oldest existing Asian football competition but there's another tournament, the IFA Shield which is the 2nd oldest in Asia (started 1893) which has been won by the likes of Peñarol 1985 defeating Shakhtar Donetsk in final, and in 2005 Bayern München B.

It was Mohammad Salim first who got signed by a European club (Celtic FC) 1936 and later on Indian captain Talimeren Ao got an offer from Arsenal but rejected it as he was pursuing medical studies in the University of Calcutta alongside playing for Mohun Bagan.

[natalkumar]

I'm from Karnataka. Football is big in India. There's just one problem, the society's elites play football here at a professional level while the common man is hated for playing football in the state.

[OcEleven]

As an Indian football fan, this is a well researched and very good video. Hopefully things will work out better for Indian football in the future.

[axelgonzalez]

I'm usually not a big fan of YouTubers / YouTube videos that just consist of the YouTuber reading someone else's writing, but this is actually a very well-done synthesis of history and modern sources about a question I would never have had a real answer for. This really is Z at his best.

[dhaisa]

India has seeked comfort in being average at cricket, now every other sport is suffering.

[dhananjaymalhotra]

India sucks at some other really important things too 😂. Football is quite low on priority.

[WorldWide_Scouting]

I actually tried to become a scout of the Indian Federation since I saw so much potential there and decided to email them with a database I made with young talents with Indian acenstry and see if they wanted to work with me. The database had almost 50 U21 players in pretty competitive team on all continents and I didn't even search that thoroughly. The country should be much higher in the rankings but as Zealand says, the current setup just make it impossible to progress.

[Rishab.K.S]

I think population and geography don't have much say in this, when your country is poor. Whether we like it or not, India is 140th in GDPP. Having a middle class life is considered great/good. So it's understandable that people are banking on education rather than sports. Arts, sports, literature etc will always take a back seat in countries like these.
But India is on a developing end right now and continues to do so (if the media are right). So I am hopeful that, football development will be in the brighter spectrum those days.

[danjackson]

The Indian premier League of cricket in India is fantastic entertainment. The fans are so lively and it really helps make the matches exciting. I'm sure Indian football will be very fun to watch.

[melodymusic]

I am from West Bengal, India. My state is called "Mecca of Indian Football" as the state is filled with golden history of originating Indian Football along Kerala too. Indian Football has improved a bit over the years and much too basic demands which we pressurized on them upon a time is less now.... With incumbent cabinet taking over AIFF, they are bringing a lot of changes with which we are happy with. I know this is just the beginning, but it's awesome. ISL will be expanded to promotion-relegation phase until 16 teams are coming up, I-League-ISL top league status debate concluded with ISL being top league of the country and bringing in professionalism in L-League too(now I-League is 2nd division), MoUs are benefitting the youth teams for more exposure.... Major issue is (1) infrastructure, (2) grassroots level and support of masses. 1 and 2 is in progression stage but the mass crowd support is a question only. Hope we will be the best team in Asia one day and play World Cup soon!