The All India Football Federation has admitted that Indian football has not kept uo the pace with the world when it comes to playing football. Last week India lost to Guam, the AIFF general sectary said the country could follow the example of other countries for immediate gains. He also said that It is becoming difficult to beat Afghanistan or Guam. He admitted that their systems are much superior to ours.
The Indian players have set of limitations in the abilities of current set of footballers in the national team. The problem with Indian football is that they have do not have enough infrastructure and training system of the present day academies along with the grassroots programmes. The team did not have such grooming and thus national team cannot do well at this stage. The All India Football Federation said that they want persons of Indian origin to galvanize the national team before grassroots and youth development programme starts yields results.
This is not such a great news for Indian football who have few players like Sunil Chettri who have shared the burden of Indian football. The Indian football needs time to match the speed of other countries. Head Coach Stpheine has identified 4-5 players like Harmeet Singh of Norway who can make a huge difference to national team as MLS players did to Guam.
This is only a temporary measure. To bulid a team out of Indian nationals will take time. It will start with Under 17 which will be game changer for Indian football. Our next hope is grassroot and youth development programmes. These grassroot and youth development programmes established in eight states will not only focus on football but also discipline, nutrition, understanding sport and coach understanding this will take time to make these things right. Once done may be in 8 to 10 years we might get a much better national side.
Indian football needs to improve a lot to come in terms with pace of other countries play their game. It is job of AIFF to make this happen and show Indian football on football world.