Did the Indian Football Team Deserve a Berth in the Asian Games?

For a sport that has grown so much in the past 3 years, the IOA could have made an exception for Indian football.

Sunil Chhetri will not be the flag-bearer for Indian football forever, it is high time that the IOA realises that.

(Photo: The Quint)

The Indian Olympic Association’s (IOA) decision to leave the men’s and women’s national football teams out of the Asian Games contingent has come as a shocker for football fans across the country.

Have the Indian football teams done nothing in the past three years to deserve a berth in the Asian games?

India has put up 524 athletes across 36 disciplines for the competitions (scheduled to be held in August). The national football teams that are ranked 97 and 59 respectively in the FIFA rankings, have been left out.

The IOA had clearly stated that it only wants to send teams that will be contenders for the title in the multidisciplinary tournament – only teams that were ranked 8 or above at the continental level get to qualify for 2018.

But, there’s a problem.

The Ranking Conundrum

This method of going by previous rankings puts the selection criteria in a spot. That’s because in the 2014 Asian Games:

• The Indian women’s handball team finished 8th out of 9 nations that competed;
• India were 11th in the medal tally in Wushu with only 2 bronze medals, one each from the men’s and the women’s category.

File image of Indian Women’s Handball Team winning the South Asian Women’s handball championships.(Photo Courtesy: International Handball Federation)

The Indian cycling team did not win anything in the 2014 games and failed miserably at the CWG.

The Indian soft tennis team’s last outing was in the 2010 Asian Games, where they finished 8th out of 11. India did not participate in 2014, but only 13 nations competed for the medals.

Yet, all of these aforementioned teams have qualified for the 2018 games – but the Indian football teams haven’t. Why?

The IOA’s rationale behind the decision comes from a Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) directive in 2015, which in stern words states that any team should not be sent to the Asian Games just for the sake of exposure.

While the IOA might be following a directive from the sports ministry, for some reason it has still kept the official communications jammed with the All India Football Federation and this particular progression of events has confused AIFF officials, a source in the know of the matter told The Quint, requesting anonymity.

There still has been no official communication from the IOA’s side after all that has happened since Monday (2 July). It is hurtful because of what we have witnessed in Indian football over the past few years.

The desperate federation, even after expressing willingness to pay for the entire tournament expenses, failed to move the association – which ignored the drama and mutely watched the press conference unfold from the sidelines.

A Special Case

The Indian men’s football team has achieved phenomenal things since the last Asian Games held in 2014. After slipping down to 173 in 2015 in the FIFA rankings, the team has skyrocketed to the 97th rank within three years.

After remaining undefeated for over an year, winning tournaments like the Intercontinental cup, the Indian team has also qualified for the AFC Asian Cup after 8 years.

The Indian men’s football team beat Kenya 2-0 to win the Intercontinental Cup title.(Photo: PTI/Twitter/Sachin Tendulkar)

Investments have been made into strengthening football’s grassroots infrastructure. With well-equipped stadiums, world-class training facilities, and efforts made to take good care of budding players, AIFF’s approach to football is currently far more professional than ever before.

Do Rankings Matter for the Asian Games?

Funnily enough, the ranking that the IOA quoted for their argument was the ranking of the senior teams. The Asian Games squads in football comprise players from the U-23 teams, with only 3 members of the senior team accompanying them.

Although the men’s team finished 26th out of 29 teams in the 2014 Asian Games, it would be incorrect to judge them on that ranking, because no other Indian sport has done so well in recent times – they could easily have been exempted from this tortuous ranking system.

The Exposure Can’t Hurt

The IOA has also failed to gauge the forward plan for Indian football.

At the moment, 11 Indian U-23 players are inducted in the senior national team. The playing time at the Asian Games would not only have given them much needed exposure to international teams and their playing styles, it would have also worked as a preparation for the important tournaments like SAF, AFC Championships and the U-23 AFC cup qualifiers.

Will the IOA take responsibility if their decision to keep the teams out of the tournament ends up hurting their prospects in future tournaments?

AIFF’s Plan

If the plan is to send teams to win medals in the 2018 Asian Games, is the IOA then expecting this contingent of 524 athletes to bring back at least 300 medals?

By this logic, if a team fails to deliver in the games, will they be kept out of the next one?

If this is the culture that IOA wants to move towards, then Indian sports is taking a dangerous turn. Axing a sport if it fails to deliver reeks of discouragement and everything that sports across the world stands against. 

While the vision is commendable, and to be fair a bit over-reaching, by comparing rankings of global sports like football to events like Sepaktakraw would be a fool’s misadventure.

Moreover, in 2014, the IOA sent 541 competitors across 28 sports. Would it not have made more sense to send more athletes than the last time, since India has socially accepted sports better in recent years?

“I think, IOA could have talked to us about our vision with Indian football,” an AIFF source said.

The football federation has previously faced a prolonged problem, which is building up a steady manpower in Indian football who could replace their predecessors.

The AIFF is trying to maintain a steady flow of players by giving its younger team international exposure.(Photo: AP)

AIFF believes that the fruits Indian football is bearing today, is due the system that was placed in 2007 – to discover and nurture talent.

The federation believes that giving the younger generation more game time and exposure, like the one U-16 team is getting while playing the four-nation tournament in China, could mean that India could never be short of a pool of talent who could challenge senior members of the team.

World Cup 2026

The goal for any football-playing nation is to play the world cup. The FIFA World Cup 2026 that is going to be held in North America in 2026 has exciting prospects for India. The tournament will have 48 positions open for the world out of which the Asian Federation will get to send the top 8 teams into the coveted competition.

If India were top 8 at the moment, there would have been no problem at all. And since they are not, the players need as much exposure they can get to familiarise themselves against playing international countries.

The journey of the Indian football in the past few years should have been paid more attention to by the Indian Olympic Association.(Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Indian Football Team)

The current U-23, U-19 and U-16 players will be the perfect combination for India to play in 2026.

IOA’s myopic decision for Indian football will not only end up hurting the game but will also end up killing the culture and the spirit of any sport in this country.

If a sport is to be strengthened from ground zero, IOA has to fix the attitude of axing games that are taking the right steps towards expansion.

It is not known if the IOA will reverse its decision pertaining to Indian football, after all, nothing moves in Indian football unless the country’s captain and leading top scorer desperately plead with the nation on Twitter to come out and support them.