Five Reasons For Football’s Demise In India

Indian football has been threatened with a ban by FIFA after finding some questionable decisions in the running of the All India Football Federation. With Praful Patel at the helm as president, AIFF decided to not conduct the AIFF elections despite Patel having completed his three four-year terms.

Supreme Court had to intervene and sack Praful Patel after FSDL (Football Sports Development Limited) moved the court citing the wrongdoing. All of these has put a big question mark on the ambitions and sanctity of Indian football, and questions are being asked of how did this country with huge potential continues to fail at football.

Let’s look a the five reasons for football’s demise in India.

Petty Politics

The biggest reason for football’s demise in the country is the policy decision from the top. In 2010, a 15-year deal was signed between Reliance Sports and AIFF which gave the federation Rs 700 crores, but in hindsight, has turned out to be a bad move.

This deal brought with it a restructuring program which has sidelined the older clubs and brought in new clubs. Teams like Dempo, Shillong Lajong and many had to scale down their operations as they were not given a seat in the new league.

The confusion with these huge restructures while uprooting historic clubs essentially broke the system and threatened older clubs to go back to their shell. This top-down approach is the biggest reason for Indian football’s demise.