Bhowmick one of the best India has produced. And knows more than most what ails Indian and Goan football. The recipe is simple. Catch them young, help only the best grow and make clubs a part of the community
In the last forty three years that I have been involved withfootball, I have heard people say that the standard has fallen. I don’t believethat. I think football has become a little more difficult. During my time,there was not much of strategy and was not as physically demanding as today.Today it’s more systematic, tactical and compact. It’s a game that’s played bythe maximum number of countries but it needs to be looked after properly. Sadlythat’s not happening in India.
In India there’s too much regimentation by too many coaches.The people who are handling the sport have too many coaching certificates butthat’s not helping a player to come up from the young age. A team needsindividual brilliance and team discipline. Sadly that’s lacking here. Look at(Lionel) Messi, when he was picked up by Barcelona. He was allowed to flourishat his own pace. All over the world, a child as young as 12 is taught tacticalsystem, discipline. Here we don’t do that. We go looking out for talent allover the country. When the boy comes into the limelight, then tactical issuesare discussed. That is a problem. These days we are getting runners notfootball personalities.
Let’s take a small example. In 2005-06 the Sao Paulo secondteam played a few matches in India and then the director and coaches of theteam went to see the Tata Football Academy facility in Jamshedpur which isproducing footballers in the country. When they saw it, they started laughing.Do you call this an academy, they asked? One football ground? At Sao Pauloacademy, there are at least 200 boys practicing at any given time. Every weekthey recruit fresh players and reduce the number every 15 days. In that timethey know if someone has come to the academy just for fun or is serious aboutfootball. From 6.30 in the morning to sunset there are 30 to 40 coachesmonitoring the players. They let them play and only observe. They don’t correctthem at that stage, they encourage them. Then, when they see someone has nochance and is useless, they remove him.
We need the same attitude here. We need to have scouts,not teachers, high school teachers butfootball teachers like in kindergarten where English is taught….. at MontessariA is aaa, B is baa… so on. It has to be serious at that level in terms of footballtoo. Football grammar has to be taught very seriously. It’s a big job. Juststaging a tournament will never help us.
You have to have people who have an inner eye. Look at ourmusical tradition. We used to call it the gurukul. The master would listen tosomeone and know if he had talent. 60 years ago there were no scanningmachines, they would check your pulse and tell you what was wrong.
In India how many parents take their children to footballgames? Cricket is the national game. In a cricket coaching camp you see motherswill carry the child’s bag, water bottle, but you will not see this if theirchild wants to play football. This attitude has to change. Look at SainaNehwal, Gopichand, their parents were very keen. Same goes for Sania Mirza.Football all over the world is serious business except in our country, where itis not primary, but secondary.
To add to this, we do not have a serious football academy.Our federation doesn’t have one. If you look at world football, you will neversee any football club run by companies, like it is happening in India. Footballshould be run by clubs who have a huge supporter base. Only two clubs inCalcutta have this. Even Dempo and Salgaoacar, long standing teams in Goa don’thave it. How many supporters do they have? These clubs may have also nevertried to promote their base. If you don’t do that, if spectators don’tparticipate, then the enthusiasm, the popularity cannot grow. Mahindra had ateam, they stopped. JCT had a team, they stopped. It will happen again.Tomorrow if Dempo stops then what will happen? Merchandising, marketing isneglected in Indian football. It has never been taken seriously. Even the AllIndia Football Federation (AIFF) has failed in this aspect. They have notpopularized the game all over the country.
In Goa when two Goan giants meet, how many spectators arethere? I have never seen 15,000 at a time. The people who are running this gamehave to sit and think as to how this game can be developed. All the clubs haveto get into community development. When you get into the community then thatcommunity will come and grow with you and become your supporters. Like, inBengal, families across generations have supported East Bengal and Mohun Bagan.
The Indian league is also in a sad state. There are 14 teamsin the league and 8 of them are from two states (Goa and Bengal). Now we haveone from the north east, Sikkim and one each from Pune and Mumbai. So, this isvery sad. The AIFF must spread to more states. The AIFF has to take interestfrom where players were produced in golden days of Indian football like southIndia. After Bengal, it was Hyderabad and Mysore which produced qualityplayers. These areas are not being tapped.
In this respect FIFA should also see that football is playedall over the country so that individual brilliance of the youth is tapped.Giving a few hundred crores to the Indian football federation is not the way.The presence of foreign club outlets in India will also not help much. Do youthink they are interested in helping us? They are coming to sell their productbecause they know that many Indian people, all young children watch theEnglish, Italian or Spanish league. They never give us their gurumantra.(teachers wisdom)
Goa’s Brendon Fernandes got exposure because ASD ( a SouthAfrican football academy) spotted him. Brendon’s case is a very isolated case.But for India, a poor footballing nation, he is an exceptional example. Goaclubs are also taking a lot of interest in the sport that’s why the sons of thesoil are coming up. There are few people like Mr. Salgaocar, Dempo, Churchilland then there is BFA (Brasilia Football Academy) who are into football. Theyare not spending money on cricket. I cansee Churchill’s passion. Every footballmatch he is in Fatorda because he loves the game. These clubs are producingplayers and they are doing a good job. But the government should support them.But lots needs to be done.
In Goa, only grounds at Fatorda, Mapusa or Vasco will neverhelp. It is a good thing that the Chief Minister has declared football as thestate game but he should give a diktat to the GFA (Goa Football Academy). Itwill not happen in a month, but if he can put the seed, someday or the otherthe Peepal tree will come. This will be an example.
As far as the future of the sport in India or specificallyin Goa is concerned, I do not see much progress. One Parrikar, one Salgoacarcannot change the attitude. The desire of the youth is there but they are notbeen given the right platform. You have to allure them. This is the duty of theAIFF. We need a Lalit Modi. Abhishek Bachchan, Ranbir are keen on football, butthen they are not coming like Preity Zinta or Sharukh khan, with bags of money.
But I have hope. Being human I can dream that the sportwhich made me what I am will someday become popular. Someday or the other. QueSera Sera….
Subhash Bhowmick is a former Indian football internationalplayer who has represented the country in various tournaments. He was a memberof the Indian football team that won the Bronze medal in the Asian Games in1970 and also participated in the Merdeka Cup and Pesta Sukan Tournament.During his playing career, he represented the "Big Two" of Kolkatafootball, East Bengal Club and Mohun Bagan and was one of the most successfulcoaches of East Bengal, having coached them for five seasons. During hiscoaching stint the club has won the prestigious ASEAN Cup in 2003 and the backto back NFL titles in 2002-03 and the following season. He is currently theTechnical Director and coach of Churchill Brothers.
