Challenges Faced by Footballers in India

Football the word in itself contains thousands of dreams, fairy tales, emotions, and legacies seen and experienced by every type of human being on this planet.

Talking about every human there are teenagers who dream to contribute to the stories and also write their own and under this word football there is also every country’s football which has its own dramatic stories to recite. Before writing the history there are some challenges faced by young teenage players.

And out of so many countries in the world I am here to talk about Indian football as I have been an ex-football player and seen it from the very close and that’s one reason why you can trust me and another reason is that I am a citizen of India that’s why I don’t have any other option so here are the challenges faced by footballer in India.

Key Challenges Faced by Young Footballers In India 

Corruption

It is not an unexpected thing to talk about corruption. Corruption is a prevalent thing It is everywhere in every little thing but we are not going on that. the main reason football is unable to grow as a sport in India being the World’s most popular game is corruption.

Being an ex-football player I have seen it from my eyes at the ground level. The harsh truth is that politicians and rich people with connections push their children in local and government-registered tournaments forward replacing the better skilled and capable players in small cities and big cities as well.

This decreases the overall quality of the team and a kid from a middle-class family of 13-14 years old doesn’t even understand all this after putting so much effort into practicing for 6-7 hours daily his only little dream is playing for his city and then for his state on a national level is just finished by a kid who doesn’t even know how to kick the ball.

The national level competition is just a trip for them. nothing else after all this how can a kid of 13-14 years think of playing for his country as he’s not even able to play for his state being capable and deserving.

Talking about a recent case of corruption of physical assault that happened in IWL which is the topmost level in India for women’s football a secretary of the football association of Himachal Pradesh was banned for 4 years by the AIFF [highest ruling body of football in India] this happened nearly 4-5 days ago. Despite getting banned He is continuously seen participating in football activities and organising tournaments.

A ban is that the person can’t participate in any football activities and after seeing all this where the players will go and what they will do if there is no value of the highest ruling body of football in India [that is AIFF].

Age Fraud 

Age Fraud has become one of the key reason and one of the main reasons why young footballers gave up their dream of playing football for their country. The concerning thing is that even the coaches at ground level promote this which is just destroying Indian football from the roots.

Just to win a local tournament coaches promote age fraud and has now become very common. Even the less skilled players of the local team of the city are replaced with better overaged local players of that city where the tournament is being held in important matches.

Daily so many players lessen their age to 3-4 years or more just to reach the top level with a shortcut and at the same place an honest and hard-working kid has to struggle playing with the older players in the teenage group tournaments like u-14s, u-17s.

Seeing all this and getting frustrated a honest footballer also chooses this path and the cycle continues as every age fraud player was once a honest player. The main problem and big role in age fraud is of the coaches and senior players promoting and supporting this at the ground level as a teenage kid is not capable of himself taking this decision on their own.

Lack of Opportunities 

Talking about the opportunities, So many players want to play for their country but due to lack of opportunities they get demotivated easily and stop playing. most of them don’t see their future in football.

There are many players whose parents don’t even support them but still they manage to continue playing until they complete their school then responsibilities hit them and seeing no future in football and not being able to convince their parents the only option they are left with is to continue studying and stop playing. Thousands of players have vanished the same way.

In India, every age group barely has one major tournament for the players to participate in and referring to the corruption issue the talented players don’t even get a chance to play on the bigger stage out of thousands of players barely any one of them makes it pro on there own with honesty and hard work.

An example of lack of opportunities in India for young footballers is the limited number of clubs in ISL and I-league which lessens the pathway for young players to showcase their talent at the big stage and get a chance to play for their country.

Lack of Facilities and Poor Infrastructure

Last but not least talking about the facilities and poor infrastructure let me start by describing my personal experience.

During my teenage years when I used to participate in the government-registered tournaments from my school and used to play and travel I have participated in every possible tournament I can 99 percent of the time I have faced the problems of horrible facilities and poor infrastructure and that 1 percent is for not participating.

During the tournament, we used to stay in the classroom of the school in the local area of the city. Every time there were no proper medication facilities, washrooms were not clean. I mean everybody knows how a government school is in most of the cities of the states of India. Our whole team used to stay in one room which consisted of 16 players mostly and the 2-3 coaches in other.

And talking about the ground, the worst possible ground we can get to play in. We could have had lifetime injuries if we had fallen even once and all this has now become a very common thing no one cares about raising the standards of the ground and maintaining it. even players have adopted this as there are many other problems further for them to face.

The experience I mentioned happens at the ground level in almost every city of India but there are so many cases and videos that come out some or the other day about poor nutritional facilities and hygiene, and bad infrastructure. These problems happen on the professional level as well.

Describing one of them some photos came out of how players were not even provided a changing room and they were changing in the common toilet area of the venue. This happened 2-3 months ago in Delhi the match was between East Bengal FC and Northeast United in the Reliance Developmental League which was organised by Reliance Foundation in which AIFF has given technical support. Even the ground condition was terrible as if it had not been maintained for months.

The same type of case happened in Uttar Pradesh in which players were served food in the toilet in a government-registered tournament. The video of the act also went viral of this shameless incident and all this has been normalized so much that most of the players don’t even complain about it anymore.

Conclusion on Key Challenges Faced by Footballers in India 

At last, I would like to conclude by saying that It’s not like other countries’ young talent don’t face any problems while achieving their dream. Every country has its own problems but these are the basic requirements on which a country should work on to get their young talents to be known by the world. Thousands of talents get wasted due to these basic problems.

If every country looks after these core areas they can improve the overall football of their nation. Maybe they can get a good Indian football team of talented players for some good years but won’t get it for a lifetime as young talents will get wasted which is one of the problems for Indian football team and won’t be able to reach to top level and a country’s football is from its youth only.

Frequently Asked Questions [FAQs]

How can we fix the problem of lack of opportunities which is one of the key challenges faced by footballers in India?

To fix the problem of lack of opportunity AIFF should introduce more leagues and tournaments for every age group from grassroot to senior level. They should try to increase the number of clubs in the top leagues like ISL and I-league. They need to reach every state of India and inspire youth as for now 90 percent of Indian football is from only 9 states of India. They should open football schools in every state of India to promote football and reach to young talents.

How can corruption be controlled? which will help in fighting the key challenges faced by footballers in India.

We need to reconstruct the whole system as every member of the state FAs and most of the members of AIFF are also involved In all this and due to this people who are willing to do their work properly and dream to raise Indian football are suppressed.

Is there any way in which we can fix the problem of bad facilities and poor infrastructure?

To fix the problem of bad facilities and poor infrastructure which is one of the challenges for Indian football, I would like to refer to my statement in the previous answer about reconstructing the system and giving jobs to people who are willing to work for Indian football. As far as funds are concerned, to solve the problem of poor infrastructure we need to reach out to the sports ministry or ruling authority with programs and ask them to raise funds for the development of Indian football.

How can I become a successful football player in India?

A football academy can be extremely beneficial. This is the most critical phase of your football career. To pursue football as your career in India, you must enrol in a football training program. your football career will be shaped by the football academy you choose to train at and the place of a mentor will also be filled.

How to Stop Age Fraud?

FC Goa and Bengaluru FC have come up with initiatives to tackle age fraud in Indian football. To counter the TW3 test’s issues, the six signatories have appealed to the All India Football Federation [AIFF]to set up an amnesty scheme similar to what the Badminton Association of India (BFI) has put in place. BAI is called the Voluntary Age Rectification Scheme (VARS) came up with this scheme. Before competing in a competition players should voluntarily and confidentially announce their actual date of birth and get rectified by BAI. Moreover, they have also stressed the need for strict actions against adults who have committed age fraud. Click here to read the full blog. This could be one way and AIFF should also introduce programs and educate people about age fraud.

Thanks for spending your time here by reading this blog on key challenges faced by footballers in India.