No future for Indian football

BANGALORE: An open goal confronts a striker, one of the probables for the Indian under-23 camp. With no opponent within range to pressurise him and with enough time on hand, the striker contrives to miss. Such scenes have been all too frequent during practice sessions at the camp and indeed on the Indian football scene.
Considering that these players would graduate to the senior Indian team over the next half-decade, the future of Indian football indeed looks bleak.Although training for a couple of exhibition matches against lower-ranked Fiji, the larger vision and the target of this camp is next year's Doha Asian Games.
Does India have a realistic chance against the likes of World Cup finalists China, Japan and South Korea? Not really, if the quality of these players are anything to go by.
The inherent problem of Indian football is the class of players which it attracts, says goalkeeping coach Brahmanand.
"There isn't much of a future in Indian football," says the former Indian keeper. "At the end of the day, it comes down to a question of money and there isn't enough in football.
The talent at the under-16 level in this country is fantastic, but few persist with the game after they reach their 20s. Within a span of four years, the quality of players drops dramatically. It's simply because medicine, engineering and academics offer a more lucrative and financially secure future."
Hasn't that trend changed with the advent of the National Football League? After all, the big clubs offer huge amounts of money for these players. "That is true, but how many of these clubs pay their players regularly and on time?" he asks.
"The club scene is rapidly deteriorating. Churchill have slipped out of the NFL and they are dependent on sponsors Coca Cola. Would Coke continue with the sponsorship? Vasco are cash-strapped. Sporting Clube and Fransa are running solely due to the interest of a few individuals. Players such as Dudu draw about $3,000 to $4,000 a month. And that's only one player."