With the soccer season upon us I recently wrote about the 2010 World Cup on my Hindi blog. After having finished the piece, I experienced a moment of sadness and frustration on our country's soccer prowess (or the lack of it). With the second largest pool of people in the world can't we produce a decent team that does well at least at Asian level (considering most of the top ranking countries are from Europe, Latin America and Africa). All we hear about is India drubbing hapless Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka, if not getting a whack from them.
India was fourth placed at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. It was the runners-up at Asian Nations cup in 1964.So what went wrong? Is it that others progressed while we just sat on our bums?
For the 2010 qualifications, India lost in the first round to Lebanon. India's current FIFA ranking is 133 (as of May 1010); its lowest ever ranking was 165 (March 2007) and highest was 94 (Feb 96). Nobody can say for sure what's wrong with the Indian football but the apex body that runs football in this country has to take majority of the blame.
Glory of Indian Football
I am not the one to cry over split milk and don't want to bore you with stories of babudom and bureaucracy crippling Indian Football. Instead, lets look at some of the finer moments of Indian Football.
Mohun Bagan Athletic Club or simply Mohun Bagan AC is one the oldest Football clubs in Asia. It has been chosen among the top 11 clubs, alongside Bayern Munich, River Plate and Manchester United, by FIFA to form an Elite Task Force for club football. Some interesting facts on MB (source Wikipedia):
- MB was the first Indian team to defeat a European team (East Yorkshire Regiment at 1911 IFA Shield).
- When Maradona visited Kolkata in 1998, the only club he visited was Mohun Bagan.
- Pele, one of the legends of the game played against MB for his club New York Cosmos in 1977. The match was drawn 2-2 with Pele scoring in a penalty kick.
- Bayern Munich played a friendly against MB in May 2008 during their Asia tour.
- MB played against and defeated Manchester City 1-0.
- MB are the third club (after Barcelona and Manchester United) in world to have launched a co-branded credit card in their name (ICICI Bank Mohun Bagan Credit Card).
- MB have a postage stamp issued after them to celebrate their 1911 victory (only club to have this honour).
You can read about Mohun Bagan's exploits in detail here.
Royalty free image source: 123rf.com
