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ISL: Wake up call for ‘sleeping giants’

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India’s glitzy super league returns this weekend, but a struggling national team and insufficient facilities in the cricket-mad country means the “sleeping giant” of world football is unlikely to stir anytime soon.

ISL proved that football can work as a spectator sport in India, so averse to watching anything other than cricket in a stadium. But it also seems to be glossing over the inherent structural shortcomings of Indian football. It’s like placing a sparkling roof on a building with shaky, corroded foundations.

India languish in 155th place in the FIFA world rankings and a recent humiliating 2-1 loss to tiny Guam further underscored the country’s urgent need to develop a crop of future stars.

But foreign players, who have flocked to the Indian Super League (ISL) for the second season, said more youngsters would only turn to the beautiful game if there were green spaces to play on.

“All the kids, they love football. They want to play football but there are no facilities,” said former French international Nicolas Anelka.

Anelka, the player-manager of Mumbai City FC, said even his own side was having trouble finding a grass pitch to prepare for the coming season.

“We have to find a way to train on normal grass (instead of artificial turf). We have to find something. I don’t know when, I don’t know how,” the frustrated Frenchman said.

Former caretaker England boss Peter Taylor, who famously handed David Beckham the captaincy of “The Three Lions”, said the infrastructure he has seen since being appointed Kerala Blasters coach is troubling.

“I look at some of the facilities and again they could improve, there’s no doubt about that because some of the pitches should be better,” Taylor told reporters.

The eight-team ISL kicks off on Saturday with Chennaiyin FC, managed by World Cup winner Marco Materazzi, taking on defending champions Atletico de Kolkata, starring Portuguese striker Helder Postiga.

The 10-week tournament drew tens of thousands of supporters in its first year and has been credited with helping to boost football’s popularity in India through its string of big names.

Poor coaching

Brazilian great Zico, FC Goa’s coach, praised the ISL for raising the sport’s profile but stressed that long-term investment, opportunities and time were also needed to help steal attention from cricket.

“In Japan they used to play baseball and then they built a lot of football grounds, and then people could play football,” the former Japan national team boss explained.

He added that India required a better coaching set-up at the grassroots level if the “sleeping giant”, as under-fire FIFA President Sepp Blatter once termed India, is to be woken.

Stevie Grieve, a football commentator and coach based in New Delhi, agrees.

“None of the current Indian professional players look like they’ve had any technical work as kids. So the national team coach has to actually teach them stuff that they should know when they are 12 or 13,” he told AFP.

India’s under-16s enjoyed positive results recently. And Grieve said if that success can be harnessed, India can think about trying to qualify for the World Cup in “at least 18 years”.

The ISL says it is “committed to a strong grassroots development programme” and England legend David Platt, manager of FC Pune City, told AFP it was important that the ISL, AIFF and domestic I-League all worked together.

The All India Football Federation reportedly recently shelved plans to open eight youth academies across the country, instead opting for a main centre in Goa.

Organisers, franchises upbeat

The ISL venture, which features some of the top international footballers though mostly in their early thirties, became an instant hit, attracting a huge number of fans to the venues in all eight cities.

In its second year, the league, which kicks off with a match between defending champions Atletico de Kolkata and Chennaiyin FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai on October 3, has got positive response from the corporate world and it is learnt that the sponsorship revenue earned by the ISL organisers has touched Rs 100 crore.

“The sponsorship revenue has almost doubled up in the second year. From last year’s Rs 55 crore, the sponsorship revenue has touched Rs 100 crore this year. This shows the corporate sector is upbeat about the business model of the ISL,” an ISL source told a news agency.

(With inputs from agencies)

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