India will host the Under-17 FIFA World Cup next year and has automatically qualified to participate in the event. While accepting the hosting duties of the event at the conclusion of the last edition of the tournament in Chile in 2015, Javier Ceppi, the Director of the India edition, called it a significant opportunity, not only for Indian football but for nations across the globe. Indeed, India will be hosting and participating in its first FIFA World Cup, and doing so in a way that only it could. For FIFA, the country with a population of 1.3 billion presents a gigantic market to expand the game. For the elite of world football, the FIFA U-17 World Cup is just a three-week affair, just another but an important tournament in a crammed international
schedule. Not so for India, which will look to create a
scenario in which 11 million youth get involved in football, 2.8
million fans attend the games, 300 million Indians get introduced
to the game and some 600 million follow the tournament
on televisions. Figures like these would likely change the
history of the sport in the country.
Despite cricket being the most
followed sport in India, football is
the second most popular sport in
the country and has come along in
leaps and bounds in the last decade.
The I-League was formed in
2007 in an effort to professionalize
the sport domestically, and the creation
of the Indian Super League in
2013 showcased Indian football to
the world with a little help from international players, some in
their twilight years. Furthermore, in 2011 the country played in
the AFC Asian Cup for the first time in 24 years and the hosting
of the Under-17 World Cup would be the final leap for the country.
With this development and such a sizeable population, India
needs to improve on their current FIFA ranking of 162.
It is not surprising that Nicolai Adam, the German coach of
Indian junior national team, has called his side the biggest underdogs
ever to play in a FIFA World Cup. The Indian junior
team beat teams like Bahrain, Lebanon and lost to Iran in the
AFC qualifiers and defeated several teams in their exposure
tour in Dubai. But the coach has warned that the World Cup
would be a different ball game. The team will have to defend
a lot and small mistakes will cost you goals. Adam needs the
cream of Indian junior football talent; players who are good
in one-on-one situations, who are mentally strong and those
who can stand up to big crowd pressures.
To develop good future teams, India wants to follow the European
model, bring in great facilities and infrastructure, and
also develop a national youth system with focus on scouting.
But with the limited resources that India has to offer to football,
it appears to be an unrealistic target for now. However,
what the U-17 World Cup can achieve is pull in the numbers
with the passion for the sport. Football superpowers like Argentina
and Brazil do not have the best of facilities but they
still produce some of the best footballers in the world. The difference
is that these countries have more youth with the passion
for the game than India. If not the European model, we
can always emulate the South American model.
