Has Goa replaced Kolkata as the new football capital of India?

With four clubs in the I-League, it's all happening in Goa!

Goan outfit Dempo Sports Club's entry into the AFC Cup semi-final, the first-ever for an Indian club, has shifted focus onto the former Portuguese colony, which has emerged as the football hub of the country.

So what makes the small state rave about its success on the football field? If the Indian National League - the I-League - is the benchmark for success then Goa, with four I-League clubs, is leading the way along with the Eastern state of West Bengal, which also has four clubs in the 12-team league.

Goa Football Association (GFA) secretary Savio Messais feels that Goa has replaced Kolkata as the soccer capital of the country.

“The soccer capital has shifted to Goa not only because of the four I-League clubs but for many other reasons,'' he said. ''There is a greater success rate at nationals, better administration, production of good players, coaches, referees and also a better infrastructure.

“There is great passion for football in Goa, and the encouragement from the GFA for clubs which helps them grow has been the secret behind of so many Goan clubs featuring in the I-League.''

But then the I-League’s common complaint has been the concentration of the 12 clubs in just four states - Goa, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Punjab. Kolkata and Goa also has four I-Leagues clubs, Mumbai has three and that means only one club outside the three states of Goa, West Bengal and Maharashtra.

That does not augur well for Indian football in terms of crowd interest – there are no teams from the southern states of Kerala and Karnataka and only one team from north - JCT.

Messais has a solution to the problem: “One should not try to kill the goose which lays the golden egg. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) should take a leaf out of the Japanese Federation's book and build up teams in other states. The I-League is 12 years old and it has been the same old story. You may reduce the teams or increase the teams, it will be the same states having representation. In Japan the federation formed a J League club in an area where no football was played and only farmers existed.”

And he agrees with national coach Bob Hougton's suggestion of increasing the number of teams in the I-League.

“Yes, we needed more teams many years ago because you had a greater pool of players available. In a huge country like ours what can we achieve by having just 8 or 10 clubs? Out of the 88 to 110 players, 24 to 30 are foreigners. If only 60 to 80 players get exposure, do you think we can progress?''

But that is the not the only grey area where Indian football administrators have to address themselves and the GFA is ready to help the AIFF.

“If our suggestions are sought we are ready to suggest and help other states grow, but basically other state associations should first get their house in order. The AIFF need to be tough with these associations,'' added Messais. ''A few states in India did not even have an association for many years, like Andhra Pradesh and now Rajasthan. Can these states even dream of having a team in the I-League?''

The GFA raised a few eyebrows and ruffled a few feathers within the Bandodkar family when they proposed to auction the cup. Messais explained: “We felt that the Bandodkar tournament could never be organized again due to the changing scenario in India. We could not organize this tournament for the last 15 or more years and we would never be able to have it again.

''We are finding it very difficult to organize the Governor Cup and the Police Cup, which are knockout tournaments for Goan teams only. Hence, rather than keep the trophy in the bank locker, we suggested that we set up an academy and name it after the Bandodkar family. It was only a suggestion but we need to brainstorm and look at other ideas too.”

The GFA are upbeat at the progress of the state and are not resting on past laurels. They plan to set up an academy in either Mapusa or Fatorda, presently it has a tie-up for youth development and other related projects with the University of Porto, the Portuguese Olympic Association and FC Porto, and soon will have a protocol with Leicester City.

The tie-ups have so far benefitted around 200 coaches and players and the state players and coaches have benefitted in many areas, such as coach education, training of players in Portugal, youth team visits to Portugal, restructuring of the youth tournaments and calendar.

Sorce:Sportlingo.com

Football Special: Sunil Chhetri's Indian Diary

Sunil Chhetri needs no introduction to anybody familiar with Indian and South Asian football. He is the biggest star in the region and the striker was instrumental in India’s recent AFC Challenge Cup triumph.

The 24 year-old recently moved clubs, leaving JCT to join Kolkata giants East Bengal. He enjoyed a goalscoring debut for his new team and if his present record is anything to by, then it will be the first of many.

Always a gentleman and always ready with a smile and a signature for his fans, Sunil has agreed to provide fans in India and around the world with a weekly insight into Indian football, the I-League and the man himself.

"I am a player who works hard and really wants to improve. Whether it is in training or in a game, I like to learn things every day. I just keep working hard and look to improve.

I am inspired by David Villa. He is not big but he is such an effective striker and he makes darting runs into the area that cause such problems for defences. He may not be physically big but he is a powerful striker and I love to watch him.

Of course, I would love to play in Europe like Villa and it all depends where I get an offer from. England would certainly be fine and I have had talks but the stumbling blocks are the work permit restrictions. I have played 75% of India’s games but of course India’s ranking is outside the top 70 in the world.

The problem in India is that when you reach a certain level at an Indian club then it is easy to become stagnated. It is difficult to progress, learn and achieve new things. That is why I want to go to Europe, I want to go to a club where I can learn a lot and achieve more.

There was no problem with JCT. It was a good team and one of best organised clubs in India with good training facilities etc. I had been there for three years and it was just time for a change and that was the only reason. We had some good results and were a good team with good players. We finished second and third and were very proud of what we did.

Coming to East Bengal is very different. There is a huge fan base here and the club has so much potential. We have good players and now we have a good new coach and I am very optimistic about the season ahead.

Scoring in the first game of the season was a great way to start but we know that we have to work hard if we are going to challenge for the title. There are some good teams in India and the standard is improving but there is a long way to go.

We need to become more professional with clubs owning their own stadiums and provide better facilities in training. We need things that European clubs take for granted like swimming pools, gyms and the right diets.

But for the moment, we are focused on bouncing back from our defeat against Mumbai and get back to the top part of the table.

I hope that you will join me over the course of the season."

John Duerden

Source:Goal.com

A Tribute To Indian Football's Unknown Hero

The Celtic Football Club was the first European club to sign an Indian.

Contrary to what people say, Baichung Bhutia, is not the first Indian to transfer to a European club. The correct answer would be Mohammad Salim. Being an Indian, from Calcutta, it was in the 1930’s when Salim was signed to play for Celtic.

At the time Salim was born, Indian’s were still under the British rule, although the fact that they played barefoot, and didn't have enough players, they managed to defeat the Englishmen, who wore boots.

A member of the renowned Mohammeden Sporting Club, Salim had claimed five consecutive Calcutta senior league titles. Following his title win in 1936, Salim was requested to take part in two friendlies.

His cousin, Hasheem from England, was visiting Calcutta at the time and watched his first friendly. After seeing Salim's spectacular display, Hasheem insisted Salim try his luck at European football.

It must have been tough to take a barefoot, amateur Indian football seriously, but due to Hashim’s determination and diligence, the Celtic manager settled with giving him a trial. Salim's skill amazed him, and he decided to play him in a match against Hamilton Academical Football Club.

Soon, he astonished the crowd and supporters alike—establishing himself to be immensely talented. Salim played for a few months in Scotland, after which he said he got homesick and sought to go back to India.

After returning, he played for his preferred Mohammeden Sporting Club in the Calcutta football league.

Rashid, Salim’s son, later revealed that his father was undoubtedly desired by the Celtics, "Celtic tried to persuade my father to stay by offering to organise a charity match in his honour, giving him five percent of the gate proceeds. My father did not realise what five percent would amount to, and said he would give his share to orphans who were to be special invitees for the match. Five per cent came to £1,800 [colossal money then] but although my father was astonished, he kept to his word," Rashid said.

Salim’s story should be legendary, but it seems to be buried deep within the pages of the past—fading away slowly into a distant memory.

It is astounding and unjust that he is not referred to as the initial Indian to play for a European team. In his obituary, his celebrated time with Celtic FC seemed to have been forgotten, and only the Indian side of his football has been brought to the reader’s eye.

Several years later, Rashid wrote to Celtic informing them about his father’s distress and poor health due to old age. He wrote of the money required for Salim’s treatment.

Rashid said, "I had no intention of asking for money. It was just a ploy to find out if Mohammed Salim was still alive in their memory. To my amazement, I received a letter from the club. Inside was a bank draft for £100. I was delighted, not because I received the money but because my father still holds a pride of place in Celtic. I have not even cashed the draft and will preserve it till I die."

Salim was an exceptional player whose role was key in bringing his first team, Mohammeden to its' glory. Not only exceptional at winning games, Salim also managed to capture hearts of fans and critics, too.

Although Salim holds a place in the heart of the Celtics, it astonishes me that he is hardly recognised in the history of Indian football.

Was he a nobody? Is this reasonable? Will today’s superstar Baichung Bhutai, be shunned into nonexistence in several years? Will he, too be left out when another young, legend-in-making, comes in to the picture? Or if some controversy happens to place its mark on Mohun Bagan.

What is it about India and mixing sports with politics? Will this ever stop? India is a country filled with passion for sports, whether its cricket, football or hockey. Why should we corrupt this with politics, or money, or even unnecessary cover-ups. It’s time to stand up for football, for its history and make this the start of a new era in Indian football.

Source:Bleacher report

Indian Football: ups and down

By Tanmoy Ghosh

Football is not just a game in India but it was involved in the independent movement of India too. Football became part of Bengal’s part and tract when Mohun Bagan (the national club of India) routed East York (the English Team) in the IFA Shield final of 1911.

This victory became a part of Bengal’s nationalist mythology because eleven Indian had defeated a team of white players after being dominated by them over 200 years. Moreover, ten of the former had played barefooted while opponents had been in boots.

It was never easy playing barefoot against players wearing boots. It was one of the historical achievements, which was written, in golden words in the history of India.
The year 1911 is significant because it marked a low point in Bengal’s history politically: the capital was shifted from Calcutta to Delhi.

It was quite symbolic victory against the British team on football ground. Before independence football matches against the British not merely a match but a struggle against racial differences.

The trio of Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting led the field and first two team remain the traditional rivals, from the time of independence. But soccer fans were non-partisan in their choice of heroes and good footballer was esteemed and adored irrespective of the club he played for. The Fifties and Sixties represent the golden age of Kolkata football and players were key figure in India’s victory in the Asian Games and the Merdeka Cup.

In most part of the world and in all games, increasing profesionalization has led to a definite improvement in standards. But in comparison Indian football doesn’t developed that much. Though today there are many individual outstanding football players but the overall standard is poor and football above everything else is a team game.

There are many factors behind this – one factor could be stamina and fitness. Though during the time of sixties and seventies the game was not 90 minutes. Fitness levels, despite rigorous coaching, are nowhere near international level. This may be due to the physique and diet of Indians. The cricket mania was another factor, which holds a higher place in the sporting imagination of the cities sports loving people.

Big companies, sponsors and media prefer cricket than any other sports which made our countries football rank much below day by day. Moreover, lack of international exposure was another factor for the degrading of the sport.

IFA and AIFA the organizing football body in India totally failed to pull the standard of Indian football, nor do they show any improvement to organize any tournament where genuine good foreign football teams can play and we can up grade our performance.

The Indian team or clubs should play in abroad for better exposure.
Despite all this, a match between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal still draws out the fervent loyalties of their respective fans and heated arguments at every tea stall over post match recaps is a common scene.

Hope one-day football will regain its lost glory. Its quite praiseworthy that many clubs from other states are also emerging not only that players from different states are coming to this sports. Football, the craze of the mass; the game people die for; the game that is watched with such frenzied and fanatical loyalty, is undoubtedly emerge in India too.

But what is most urgently required for Indian football’s up gradation is investment of multinational companies into this game. Like wise in Europe and America the game was hyped due to tremendous participation of multi national companies. India ranked far behind than top hundred countries. In order to come among the top football playing nations India need good infrastructure, may be foreign coaches.

The player should get proper training in order to compete with better teams. Physical fitness is one of the most concerned areas where Indian players have to work harder and harder in order to compete with international level of football.
Well u cannot say that, a coach is a rare phenomenon that a nation of over 100 crore people with unparalleled heritage of thousands of years cannot provide.

In fact, only minnows need a coach. Media should start paying more attention to science and creative arts rather than wasting time and energy on trivialities.
Moreover coaches can be found among the retired players. An Indian, can only realize the pulse of the players than a foreign coach.

Globalisation has become an order of the day. In all spheres of economic activities, except for a few select areas concerning national security, several countries have started hiring foreign professionals, in order for the development of the sports. If the exercise should be result oriented, then there is no hard in hiring foreign coaches.

In our country, where 70 per cent of the population lives in villages, from where most of our players come, the standard of education is not all that good. Moreover the Indian players does not understand English, so appointing a foreign coach to train our players will not fully serve our purpose, as it will create a huge communication gap between the players and the coach.

What we need to do is stop the interference of politicians in selections and let the players emerge for the national team accordance to their performance. Only then can he motivate and train the players better.

This country has produced some legendary sportsmen on its own, so the question somehow rose by the critics that are the need to appoint a foreign coach. These coaches not only consume more funds and they hardly knew about our culture and geography of India. Briefly in order to revive the lost glory Indian football need total change which can’t be gone without investment of multi-national companies.

Article origanally published in Universal Journal

Indian-origin football players aim to score big with local clubs

It’s not just sectors that sport suits and ties, many local sports teams are attracting the Indian diaspora, too

Izumi Arata is only half-Indian but that was just enough for the recruiters of Indian football. Last year, the 25-year-old moved from his native Japan to play for East Bengal Football Club. Now, he’s moved onto Mahindra United in Mumbai, which is pinning its hopes on the striker and midfielder to help the team retain its national championship title.

Turns out that the return of the Indian diaspora is not limited to the sectors that sport suits and ties—many sports teams want to cash in on the trend as well.
Arata, born to an Indian father and a Japanese mother, is the face of an initiative by a group of Indians in Germany and the UK to link talented players with Indian roots to clubs here.

The programme is seen as one way for India to up its game, while giving players, who might see little field beyond the bench in Europe, a taste of the pros.

At least two soccer-related websites—Indianfootball.com and Soccernetindia.com—ha-ve posted invitations to PIOs, or people of Indian origin, to play in India, joining the ever-swelling ranks of foreign players, such as Brazil’s Jose Ramirez Barreto, already turning out for local clubs.

Last year, the sport’s apex administrative body in the country, the All India Football Federation (AIFF), allowed local clubs to induct one PIO player each, in addition to the three foreign nationals already allowed.

As in other companies that have allowed returnees to leapfrog into corner offices, those who’ve ventured to Indian shores—besides Arata, fellow Indian-origin footballer Nichlas Nath of Sweden played for a Goa club last year—tend to be second-tier players. Before coming to India, Arata played professionally for Albirex Niigata in Singapore’s mediocre S-League, and Mitsubishi Motors Mizushima club in the second division of Japan’s J-League.

Football’s repatriates, if you will, are a new development, as generally, successful athletes tend to flee India for better support, sponsorships and salaries.

For years, Indian cricketers have played in the English county leagues, both for experience and money. Of late, hockey stars have begun heading to Europe to play in the Dutch, German and Spanish leagues. Basketball players, too, head for countries such as Germany and Australia, including women hoopsters: Geethu Anna Jose plays in the Big V pro league down under. And a few years ago, footballer Baichung Bhutia signed up with second division English club Bury FC for a season, as well as Malaysia’s Perak football club.

“I came here as India is one of my countries,” says Arata, whose Indian name is Neelkant. But he also admits despite the Indian rupee being weaker than the Singapore dollar (one Singapore dollar is worth a little over Rs26), he’s being paid “much more” by Mahindra than Albirex.

NewsCourtsey:LiveMint.com

India’s New Soccer Love

The growing craze for football in India has left TV channels fighting for 2010 FIFA telecast rights

Football, the world’s most popular sport, kept its promise as a big revenue earner during Euro 2008. The exciting set of 31 matches is estimated to have generated ¤1.3 billion (Rs 8,710 crore) for its governing body Union of European Football Association (UEFA), mainly through the sale of telecast rights and sponsorships. This is nearly 50 per cent higher than what Euro 2004 generated in Portugal.

Besides UEFA’s takings, the football craze is believed to have pumped up an additional ¤2 billion (Rs 13,400 crore) in business from hotel bookings, and other tourism-related activity. Though hosts Austria and Switzerland went out early in the league rounds, they seem to have been the main beneficiaries from the two-week football boom.

Interestingly, much of UEFA’s earnings are ploughed back into the development of the game. UEFA General Secretary David Taylor has announced that while ¤600 million was spent on staging the event, as much as ¤450 million would go to UEFA’s member associations to raise football to higher levels.

In India, despite the domination of cricket and a heady IPL season, international football has gradually made inroads and become the second- biggest sports entertainer. The Dubai-based Ten Sports television network, recently bought by Zee, was launched in the Indian subcontinent in 2002 on the back of live telecast of the FIFA World Cup played in Korea and Japan. That year, Ten Sports paid just $3 million for the telecast rights, while FIFA’s 2006 World Cup tourney sold for $9 million. The rapid increase in international football’s popularity can now be gauged from the fact that Ten Sports and ESPN-Star Sports are locked in a close bidding battle for 2010 FIFA telecast rights, wherein the closing bids for India are believed to have exceeded $40 million (Rs 168 crore).

It is still far short of what television networks pay for cricket rights. To put it in perspective, $50 million is what Doordarshan paid for four years of BCCI’s rights in 2000.

It is not for nothing that television networks are willing to pay so much for the India rights of big international football events. Euro 2004 attracted huge viewership from the country’s football markets, with Kolkata and Kerala notching up 6.48 and 3.71 TVRs (television rating points), respectively. FIFA World Cup 2006 did even better with 9.1 TVR, or a cumulative audience of 627 million, comparable to top soaps and 50-over cricket matches. Though some of the Euro 2008 matches were telecast past midnight in India, the growing football craze has not gone unnoticed by UEFA. Philippe Le Floc’h, marketing director of the European soccer body, went on record to say, “We expect India to be amongst the biggest viewers of Euro 2008 football outside Europe.”

And, it is not just about international football. In the streets, the game has always had a cult following, and many sports commentators acknowledge domestic soccer outperforms domestic cricket in India. A final league match between Mohan Bagan and East Bengal in Kokata’s Salt Lake stadium attracted 130,000 fans.

On the other hand, in quality and standards, the game is as dead as a dodo. Until 1960, India regularly qualified for the Olympics and was invited to the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, but the long sea journey and the team’s insistence on playing bare-feet kept them out. Today, India is ranked 143rd in world football, and has not been able to qualify even for the Asia Cup. Sports journalists who have investigated this strange mismatch between the grassroots passion for the game and the abysmal performance on the field, say it is a problem of poor infrastructure.

After ESPN-Star Sports went through a barren patch without international cricket rights, it tried to develop league hockey in India. With too many sports channels chasing few good cricket matches and other sports properties, funding the development and marketing of domestic and league football in India could provide good alternative content and be a long-term investment.

FIFA, which has a toe-hold in India through the All India Football Federation, should plough back some of its huge takings from telecast and sponsorship rights into India. If football standards take a leap, there are a billion eyeballs in the country waiting to be drawn into the game. That is six times the size of football-crazy Brazil.

Union Information & Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi is also a patron of the FIFA-backed football association. The synergy he commands between the ‘visibility’ ministry and the sport should not be wasted.


Article published in Business World

In today's India, soccer finds no place

India's overheating economy along with China's is the topic du jour nowadays in the global economy. Overnight, the IT revolution and outsourcing has created the world's biggest nouveau riche group, India's middle class of more than 300 million people. To many investors, this represents potentially millions of new customers clamouring for everything, from cell phones to cheap air tickets.

India's FDI now tops more than $70 billion a year, an increase of 116% over last year. Factories in India are finding it hard to keep up with demand. There is now a waiting period for cars and motorcycles. The Indian economy has seen an impressive almost double digit rate of growth in the last decade or so. Deregulation in the early 90's has led to the global market immersing itself in the Indian economy.

In this context it is not surprising that India's new rich has turned to golf as their choice of sport. Literally, thousands of school going children are taking lessons in New Delhi's dozen golf courses. Indians golfers Arjan Atwal, Daniel Chopra, Jyoti Randhawa, and Jeev Milkha Singh, have found success in the PGA and Asian tourneys inspiring many budding golfers to emulate them. And beyond them, we have a bonafide star in Vijay Singh, whose Indian roots are a
source of pride.

Golf is a sport with bountiful prize monies, attracts hundreds of sponsors and endorsements, can be played well past retirement age, and at the end of the day requires less physical fitness than most sports. Moreover, golf is increasingly an essential part of a business profile, an attractive add on that enhances your marketability. In short, golf embodies the new individualistic and corporatist India.

Soccer's origins smack of Nehruvian socialism in this new India. The ascendant days of Indian soccer in the '50s and '60s were partly due, in fact, to the large PSUs (Public Sector Undertakings), the industrial behemoths like SAIL, BHEL, Indian Railways, who were in position to invest in soccer infrastructure, had teams as did the defense forces. In those days, soccer was primarily played to keep unruly states, newly integrated, in the Indian union.

The quaint anachronism that is the Santosh trophy reflects those past vicissitudes. In today's context the Santosh trophy assumes that there is a visceral attachment to an abstraction such as statehood, when clearly we have moved on, as evinced in the empty stadiums that bear witness to matches between W.Bengal and Punjab, or more recently Manipur. In England a player is beholden to his club and country, not county.

Fans gravitate to a more local affiliation, the club, which in many cases was started by a group of them, reflecting a historical and societal dynamic. We see it in the Bengal and Goa clubs (a wonderful history of Indian soccer can be read in Goalless, the Story of a Unique Footballing Nation).

Unfortunately, this part of Indian soccer has woefully languished beyond the usual power centers of W.Bengal, Goa, Punjab, and Kerala, which is where most of these clubs are located. The Santosh trophy reflects Nehru's policy of the primacy of the state and its enterprises, creating an elitism, that has done little to enhance the development of soccer but preserves the bragging rights of exactly four states.

This is not to say that the advent of globalization has not touched Indian soccer. On the contrary, it has led to the formation of the National Football League (NFL), provided the players enough money, sponsored kits and equipment, and made the NFL rich many times over with lucrative TV and merchandising rights. Indian soccer is rolling in the money. But globalization cuts both ways.

The airing of Premiership, La Liga, UEFA cup, the Euro and the World Cup, means the average Indian soccer fan can watch his favourite player, Ronaldinho in action and follow his favourite proxy team which unsurprisingly happens to be Brazil. The long dry spell in Indian soccer has left no soccer heroes that this generation of fans can look upto.

Gone are the days of Sailen Manna, Chuni Goswami, Shyam Thapa, Prasanto Bannerjee, Neville D'Souza, and Peter Thangaraj, their exploits etched in history while being supplanted by European and Latin American soccer stars in the new global India. Even a bonafide star such as Baichung Bhutia enters the twilight of his career, his considerable talent inadequate to carry India on his back, without the tangible support of the rest of the players.

The NFL has been unsuccessful in creating any indigenous heroes while it has become a magnet for third tier Nigerian and fourth tier Brazilian players. It has also failed to carve out an existence beyond the big Indian metros and its average attendances artificially inflated by the Kolkata club derbies, in actuality show a decline. The NFL is simultaneously, a beneficiary and a victim of globalization. Enriched by it but abandoned by an audience that has many choices, including golf.

What we need is a Gandhian approach to developing soccer and this means getting soccer out from the urban centers to the smaller cities in the hinterland. We can derive inspiration and ideas from how Japan managed to make soccer the number one sport in their country. The J-League after a fast promising start in 1992 also faced the same dilemma, with dwindling audiences after the first few upbeat years.

But the J-League was blessed with visionaries who saw that circumscribing soccer in the confines of the big metros was surely its death knell, and they took to developing the secondary and tertiary centers of soccer in smaller cities and towns who built these clubs successfully from the grass-root level, leading to the formation of the J2 League. The J. League designated the core activity areas of each club as that club's home town.

What this means is that the J. League expects each club to develop as an integral part of its community and engage in the promotion of football and other sporting activity within it (J. League Regulations, Article 21).Clubs from towns like Oita, Kofu, Sendai, Omiya, and Niigata formed the initial nucleus of J2 clubs, which has now grown to 13 clubs. The development of the J2 league is the prime reason why soccer has flourished in Japan.

India does have a NFL second division of six clubs. The premier cup competition in India, the Federation cup is open to 16 teams, ten in the first division and six in the second division of the NFL. Out of the 16 teams, four come from Kolkata, five from Goa, 2 from Kerala, 2 from Maharashtra, and one each from the Army, Karnataka, and Punjab. Sixteen clubs represent the soccer aspirations of a country over a billion strong.

Even more shocking, these six second division clubs again represent that tiny group of states that have a traditional lock on Indian soccer. The NFL has introduced a fledgling 3rd division and if this succeeds then more clubs in other regions of India will get a chance to compete. However it appears that these teams are mostly from the para-military and other state organizations, whereas, the NFL 3rd division should be concentrating on developing coomunity based clubs. Compare this to the English FA Cup which invites not only the Premiership clubs and other Football League division clubs but also non-league clubs. The 2006-2007 season saw a record 687 entries.

Lower clubs go through preliminary qualifying rounds to get to the next level. This egalitarian exercise involves the whole nation and its clubs, both professional and amateur, through the football season, and in the past had produced some of the most thrilling upsets of the more storied clubs. Amongst the more memorable ones, in 1991, 4th division Wrexham beat 1st division Arsenal, 2-1 and more recently in 2003, 3rd division Shrewsbury Town beat Premier League Everton, 2-1.

The AIFF can introduce a limited version of the FA Cup by increasing the number of clubs playing the Federation Cup, outside of the NFL and from other states, develop multiple regional venues that can host these games, get sponsors to provide kits, transport, and equipment, and get extensive media and TV coverage, market the event extensively, and truly make soccer a sport that touches millions of Indians.

Imagine for a moment, the folklore history created by an unheralded club from Rajasthan, the Khetri Copper Mine Soccer Club that beats Mohun Bagan, the giant Kolkata club, and how powerful this giant killing feat could be in developing soccer outside the metros, in small cities and towns, perhaps creating an audience that is still unspoiled by the vagaries of globalization. In the Dominican Republic, lies the small town of San Pedro de Macoris, a sleepy sun soaked paradise known for its beaches and sugarcane.

It is also legendary in the world of baseball for producing some of its finest players, including Sammy Sosa, Alfonso Soriano, and Robinson Cano, to name but a few. Who knows which small town will turn out to be India's San Pedro De Macoris in producing soccer stars?

Origanally written by Shourin Roy

Blog Courtsey: Soccerblog

Soccer-Challenged, but Not Soccer-Deprived

The World Cup, soccer's greatest showpiece, which opened in South Korea and Japan yesterday, is certainly a global sporting phenomenon, possibly even bigger than the Olympic Games. To millions around the world soccer offers reassurance that their countries can take on the best. Across much of Europe and Latin America soccer is more a national obsession than a game. In countries like Brazil, Argentina, France, Italy and England soccer teams have become symbols of the nation, and their illustrious track records in the World Cup a source of great national pride.

America is the well-known exception. While more than 15 million Americans play soccer, not even 15,000 turn up for the average Major League Soccer game. But what about a country like India?

People are crazy about soccer here, but India has never played in the World Cup. Our team is ranked 123rd by FIFA, soccer's world governing body. And there is little hope that India will be good enough to make it into the World Cup any time soon.

India's soccer team was slightly better off in the 1950's than it is now -- it came in fourth in soccer in the 1956 Olympics. Since then, however, the game has moved on and Indian players have not. Over the last 40 years players in India have not developed soccer skills comparable to those of players in other nations. While Indians have held their own in the international arena in sports like cricket, we have traditionally fared poorly in contact sports. With little to show in performance at the highest level, Indian soccer stars have not become role models for kids in India.

As a result, nationalist fervor over soccer as an Indian sport (played in India by Indians) has not taken root in the collective consciousness as the passion about cricket has. But the appeal of international soccer in India is a different story. Across the country, from big cities like Calcutta to small villages in the outback of Bihar or Uttar Pradesh, the pulse of soccer is throbbing in every vein. In the run-up to the World Cup, sales of color televisions have shot up. The matches are on all day here, so many will take leave from work to watch them, gathering at street corners to cheer.

On the streets of Calcutta, young men paint pictures of their heroes from Brazil and Argentina on the sides of buldings. In Calcutta, the heroes are inevitably from Brazil or Argentina. The people here seem to identify with the feints and the dodges, all the artistry of Latin America, rather than the cerebral, machine-like soccer of European nations. Could it be that our soccer fans find it easier to root for teams from financially depressed, often politically troubled countries, as opposed to those from affluent places like Germany or France?

This enthusiasm about the sport, which used to be restricted to club games at the local level, is a result of the new culture of globalization. Satellite television has made soccer a global game, taking it into living rooms around the world, even in India. (If there is one modern technology that has proliferated in India in the last few years, it is satellite TV.) And with the explosion of global marketing, popular interest in soccer and all its accouterments has grown with amazing speed.

Over the years, people here -- especially young people -- have become terribly brand-conscious consumers. And television has taught us how brands like Coca-Cola and Adidas are inseparable from the game. Being in step with world soccer has come to denote a certain kind of internationalism, being in step with a trendy, global culture, as much as eating at McDonald's or wearing a Nike T-shirt does.

So when people in places like Calcutta worship soccer stars like Zidane and Ronaldo, they are not just declaring their devotion to the game; they are also confessing their loyalty to Soccer Inc.

Written by Soumya Bhattacharya ,he is an editor at Hindustan Times.

NewsSource:Hindustantimes.com

Indian Soccer, the Suck That Is

I'm of Indian origin even though I was born and brought up in Bahrain, a tiny country nestled in the Arabian Gulf. And growing up as a sport loving Indian has had its trials and tragedies, from the youth system all the way up to international sporting events.

India has traditionally been, and continues to be, an underachiever on the world stage, churning out dismal performances at the Olympics and various World Cups in different sports.

In soccer it fares worse than countries like Uzbekistan and Bahrain!

Why this is happening in a population that has a pool of over a billion to choose from is beyond most people.

But not me.

The fact is simple—India is bogged down by red tape and an uncaring population that has been dilated with cricket and field hockey, while keeping ancient protocols within an aged governing body that is comprised of a bunch of big headed farts that know everything about the scent of a rupee but not the soccer pitch.

And it pisses me off.

Why? Because a country like India with its majority well-off middle class population and enough money to buy Belgium just does not care about sports. Yes, we give a damn about cricket, but in India, cricket is not a sport, it's a religion with cricketing "gods" like Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar worshipped on a daily basis.

India losing in a cricket World Cup causes mass riots. India not qualifying for the FIFA World Cup causes... well nothing.

Currently, according to FIFA rankings, Argentina plays the best football on this side of the galaxy. India on the other hand, has a better chance of getting the first elephant into space than winning a soccer game, sitting rather too comfortably in the 154th position, below a war torn Iraq (70th), a no name squad in a poor country like Botswana (113th) and way below one of their greatest cricketing rivals, Australia (43rd).

Within the Asian zone, the Indians don't even figure in the top ten!

In fact, the Indians could learn a lot from the Aussies, since both nations pride themselves on their ego. The difference is the Australians strive to do well on the sporting field, simply because this unites the country behind a common ground and gives Aussies everywhere a chance to brag about something other than politics and money.

Excelling at sports is something the Aussies tend to whip themselves towards.

India has had its fair share of talent, and I am grouchy because I've played soccer during my brief vacations to Goa a (south-western province in India) with some players that could make Cristiano Ronaldo look like a school girl. I'm as honest as can be when I say that.

Goa has some of the best flair soccer players in India, and our state provides the nation with some amazing teams from Churchill Brothers to Dempo, and I can safely say that we have some truly amazing talent coming up through the ranks.

Only to dilute down to waste due to some rather abject administration. The few that make it obviously move abroad to the Arabian leagues to make better money and the few amazing talents make it as far as Europe.

Baichung Bhutia made it all the way to Bury [after being courted by Fulham and Aston Villa] and he improved his game a lot, moving back to Mohun Bagan, the Manchester United of Indian soccer.

Michael Chopra anyone? (On a side note, Chopra was born and brought up in England and never actually played in India.)

With its huge coffers of cash that is spent in the name of sport, it is an amazing feat of misgoverning that any natural talent found is not nurtured and developed let alone encouraged to maximize potential.

We have absurd policies (basing selection on popularity and personal favours rather than talent) and rather biased selection processes that are geared to feting the popular teams and persona.

Our coaches are garbage, we even still employ the 4-2-4, something that hasn't been seen since the 1962 World Cup!

While other nations continue to develop wide ranging and extensive sport education academies and school curriculum's, we are stuck doing stupid drills and ineffective cardio workouts that would make the Teletubbies laugh out loud.

Well I for one am not laughing!

Match-fixing and cheating is rife and incompetence and lethargic governing has given way to an even worse failure as the years go by. Soccer pitches are poorly managed, soccer teams are not adequately financed and don't even get me started on availability of equipment.

Huge crowds and support in states like Bengal and Goa have not been converted throughout the nation and has not been transplanted into a progressive development system. Everything about soccer in this country screams amateur.

Everything.

And what's even worse, anything remotely encouraging is greeted with cynicism, ageism and cronyism. Indian soccer continues to wallow in its pig-pen of suck-ism.

Much can be done. India is NOT poor on the monetary front but the people in charge of the sport in the country need to rally the troops and advance the beautiful game.

As far as soccer goes, India is an ugly duckling being left behind and these are sad times indeed.

Origanally written by Shawn-Sieiro and published in Bleacher Report.

Global appeal of Premier League

As money floods in to the Premier League from around the world, English football clubs are becoming global brands. But is that a good thing for football elsewhere in the world? The national football coach of India, who is English, thinks not. Correspondent Chris Morris reports from Hyderabad.

Audio Link--Click here

NewsSource:BBC.CO.UK

What's holding back Indian football?

With a population of more than 1bn one might expect India to be among the world's footballing superpowers.

But India is not even one of the leading teams in Asia, ranked a lowly 28th behind relative minnows such as the Maldives, a tiny chain of islands off its southern coast with a population of just 318,000.

As Leicester prepare to host East Bengal in a friendly designed to boost the game's profile in the sub-continent, BBC Radio World Football's Mike Geddes investigates why India lags behind its larger neighbours.

Domestic football in India is far more popular than domestic cricket, and many teams in the country's National Football League trace their origins back to the 1880s, when the game was introduced by British colonials.

Most Indian kids have a passion for football but there are not the qualified coaches at the grass roots level to help them--------------------India captain Baichung Bhutia



Indeed, league football was being played in Calcutta long before Real Madrid or the world governing body Fifa even existed.

The country qualified regularly for the Olympics until the 1960s, and were invited to the 1950 World Cup in Brazil but the problems of a long sea journey and the fact that they still played in bare feet prevented them from appearing.

Now, ranked 143rd in the world, unable to qualify for the ongoing Asian Cup let alone the World Cup, those days are distant history.

Englishman Steven Constantine, who coaches the national team, says the problem is the lack of a proper grass-roots infrastructure.

"You see kids playing football in the street with no shoes everywhere in this country but there's no development at youth level. That, and coach education, are reasons why we are not as advanced as we should be.

Streets kids in Delhi play in a homeless league

"It's slowly changing but until the clubs do more to develop their youth. Its difficult for me to
scour the countryside looking for players for the U17 and U19 sides.
"We have 25 states but only two or three are doing anything with any success to develop youth."

Calcutta, capital of East Bengal, is the spiritual home of football in India, and it's also home to one of the biggest derbies in the world.

In 1997 more than 130,000 people packed the Salt Lake stadium to see the game between East Bengal and Mohan Bagan, whose rivalry matches that of Celtic and Rangers in Glasgow.

One man who knows all about that rivalry having played for both sides is East Bengal's Baichung Bhutia, captain of the national team and the undisputed superstar of Indian football.

Bhutia echoes Constantine's comments.

"I was lucky in that I got a scholarship due to football and we had coaches in school, but it wasn't the same as European kids get. Most Indian kids have this passion but without the qualified coaches at the grass-roots level.

"If only they could catch players at a young age because I definitely see a lot of talent here - even more talented than English players at a young age."

Today football is nominally under the control of the All India Football Federation, and its president Priya Ranjan DasMunshi, a committee-based body funded by Fifa.

But national youth football is traditionally controlled by a different body - the Sports Authority of India - which gets no money from Fifa.

Hindustan Times journalist Jaydeep Basu says this makes it difficult to implement a successful youth development programme because the people who run football are politicians, not professionals.

"The problem is the AIFF is amateur. It is of politics. I can name people in Indian football who are secretary or treasurer of different state associations who have been there for 40 years.

"So for them holding onto power is the main issue. Improving the game is never the issue. So you need a set up for professionalism. Indian football never had a set up of that kind.

"There was a time when India were twice Asian Games champions.

"But now the power base has shifted to Japan and Korea or the middle-eastern countries - Iran, Qatar, Saudi.

"India has failed to keep up with the professionalism that has been ushered into Asian football in the last 25 years."

Not surprisingly, DasMunshi rejects criticisms of the set-up - and says he has his sights on a World Cup qualification by 2010.

India's youth coaching set-up is haphazard

"Football should be managed by the chief executives of marketing or training. This is professionalism.

"That set up we will complete within six months. If I am the president and I have a professional chief executive and coach we have only to decide policy but the execution should be done professionally.

"The fact remains that we did not improve our youth development facilities since 1974.

"Though at some time in Asian level our youth development programme gained some momentum it fizzled out because of lack of club infrastructure in the country apart from Calcutta.

"So we have taken up the national youth development programme as priority for the last eight years. I'm very confident that we have launched a mission that India must appear in 2010."

There is no doubt the amount of untapped potential is huge.

In Delhi, there is even a league - the Street League - for homeless kids, set up by aid workers.

"There are 5,000 children who live on Delhi railway station," said Street League coach Bill Adams, of the privately-run India Youth Soccer Association.

"It was not hard to get a few of them to come along for training.

"That's where the really hungry players will be. So they're now getting cared for by these charities and we're giving them the chance to break out of this poverty.

"We find our street kids are 200% more determined to do well in football."

Facilities are poor

Source:BBC.CO.UK

Kolkata set for a date with Arshavin

Kolkata, September 19 If everything goes to plans, Andrei Arshavin and his club Zenit St-Petersburg would be seen in action in Kolkata. It is learnt that the state sports ministry is planning to organise a mega football event in the city in January. Along with Zenit St-Petersburg, a top club from Turkey is also expected to play.

The three city giants — Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting and an outstation I-League side will make the list in this proposed six-team tournament. The tournament will be named after Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and is likely to start on January 23, Netaji’s birthday.

The 27-year-old Arshavin was the undoubted star of Russia’s march to the Euro 2008 semifinal. Earlier, he helped his club to first Russian Premier-Liga title last year. He is also Russia’s first ambassador for the Fifa SOS Children’s Village Charity Project for child orphans.

The state sports minister Subhas Chakraborty plans to organise the tournament after the first phase of the I-League. There would be a few days’ gap before the second phase starts. If the plan materialises, the city will once again witness top quality soccer action.

Kolkata’s tryst with top class football stars is few and far between. Pele came here in 1977. Then Roger Milla of Cameroon paid a visit in 1990. Last in the list was Bayern Munich goalkeeper Oliver Kahn who played his farewell match against Mohun Bagan last May.

The future of Indian football: Tapping the diaspora?

The Doha Asian games, saw an Indian football drawing Hong Kong, barely beating the Maldives, and then crashing out to Iran.

Iraq, with its violence and kidnapping and murder of many of its key football officials, finds a place in the quarterfinals. Sending the Indian team to Doha was done at AIFF (All India Football Federation) expense as the Sports Ministry of India had not cleared them to go. Football was identified as a sport that India did not stand a chance to medal in. Bizarrely, for Priya Ranjan Das Munshi these are all portents that India is going to qualify for the World Cup in 2010. The one thing that Das Munshi has learned as AIFF president all these years is that as a politician, always promise but never deliver them.

In this world of globalization, with respect to technology, the Indian government and the private sector have done a smart thing and have tapped into the vast amounts of skilled manpower that India has sent abroad. The gradual dismantling of the license raj has created the conditions for diasporic Indians to invest and many instances even comeback to India. In turn, this has encouraged foreign companies to set up shop in India. A more recent trend shows a number of foreign students spending their internships in companies like Infosys.

Similar opportunities exist with regards to football with the diasporic Indians. This has not been explored in any organized fashion. Raj Prohit's Sapphire Enterprises, the company that was responsible for bringing Baichung Bhutia to Bury in 1999, organized the first tour of the Indian national team in 2000 to England, where they played Fulham, West Bromwich Albion, and Bangladesh. This was ostensibly to highlight the popularity of football in India and to give the national team experience and exposure. Subsequent tours also saw the Indian team play other first and second division clubs as well as Jamaica. The subtext in these tours was to promote racial equality in the UK based diasporic communities but in effect it was also to sell India. As Paul Dimeo writes, " A later development of these tours was to promote the idea of India as a home." In doing so, the idea was to establish links between the NRI (Non Resident Indian) community and India that would see exchanges of coaches and and players, and the future possibility of including NRI's in the Indian team.

In theory, a very feasible idea and one that should be given serious consideration. Imagine at some point of time having players of the calibre of Vikash Dhorasoo, Michael Chopra, Aman Dosanjh, Aaron Winter, Harpal Singh, Rajinder Singh Virjee, and Prince Rajcomar representing India. As in the case of Jamaica and more recently Trinidad and Tobago that have built successful squads around diasporic players. With India, a player like Vikash Dhorasoo would be assured of playing all 90 minutes, instead of fighting for minutes in Les Bleus with its surfeit of talent in the midfield positions with Zidane, Govou, Wiltord, Vieira, Makelele, and Ribery. A perceived lack of opportunity playing for England led to Zesh Rehman, the ex-Fulham midfielder's decision to switch allegiance to Pakistan in 2005.

However, Dimeo brings up an excellent point suggesting that Sapphire Enterprises noble and lofty ideals were nullified by Raj Prohit's overtly commercial enterprise, which is not surprising, as they are a for profit company. The matches were fairly expensive to watch and were marketed to British Asians, excluding the "whites' who the organizers felt would not be interested. The Indian players movements off the field were tightly regulated, they were refused access to schools and community clubs, that would have lent credence to Sapphire's message of 'community building.' The result is that the effect of these tours in promoting Indian football and racial diversity have been miniscule. On the other hand, the AIFF imprimatur of these tours and its publicity have led Prohit and now Arunava Chaudhuri, a German based NRI, and the owner of the web portal indiafootball.com who has entered the football tour business, to assume that only NRI's can save the state of Indian football. Jas Bains, author of a very influential 1996 report Asians Can't Play Football says, "I helped put British Asian football on the map, now I hope to put Indian football on the map."

The problem lies not so much in these NRI entrepreneurs as they are only exploiting opportunities. It is the AIFF, an enervated institution led by an enervated individual, Priya Ranjan Das Munshi. The AIFF has no vision and so these individuals are providing AIFF their version that essentially dismisses the notion that Indians are incapable of developing talent on their own. The panacea to Indian football lies in the wholesale import of PIO (People of Indian Origin) players. This cavalier view has irritated Indian players and sports journalists alike. The failure of the AIFF to provide its own vision has led many others to offer their own. Mohammed Bin Hamman, the AFC president has targeted India as a potentially important Asian contributor to the world's game. One of his more realistic goals targets the development of local talent. This vision is at odds with the NRI one. However, the AIFF only pays lip service to the development of youth teams which is under the control of the Sports Authority of India (SAI). It does not even provide the SAI with funds, despite having the capital. So the AIFF's only meaningful interaction lies with these NRI investors. And in fact, Arunava Chaudhuri and Sapphire Enterprises enjoy a cosy and comfortable relationship with the AIFF.

To enter Chaudhuri's world is to enter a world full of absurdist claims which bolster his argument of PIO participation. Recently, a friendly against Brazil was cancelled. This led Chaudhuri to claim by refusing to play Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka & Co, India have lost out on a wonderful opportunity to entice players of Indian origin. In a November article, explaining why Indian football is in the doldrums, he writes," In India often instant results are expected, not only in football, but in sports in general." After 18 years of steady decline in the standards of Indian football under Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, no fan of Indian football expects a miracle turnaround.

I have no problems with PIO players in the Indian team. They should be welcomed. However, having PIO players participate should be done to enhance the Indian team and not to make up its composition. The emphasis should lie in developing local talent whose roots lie in the game in India. This is the only long term sustainable solution. Jamaica is mentioned as a team of diasporic players.

There is a big difference. Jamaica has a sizeable diaspora concentrated mainly in England with which they have had a longer historical association much before independence. The Jamaican diaspora's emphasis on assimilation through sports is better developed. Players like Robbie Earle representing Jamaica have played in English clubs since the early 80's. Many maintain a very close relationship with Jamaica. In contrast, the Indian diaspora's assimilative experience through sports is minimal. They are about 20 years behind their Jamaican counterparts in a sport like football. Furthermore, the Indian diaspora is far more complex, with more tenuous ties to India than the Jamaicans. The PIO idea might develop but it will take a while before we can even expect a few players to come back. Meanwhile, Zesh Rehman's decision to play for Pakistan reveals that this issue is far more complicated than the rose tinted spectacles with which Chaudhuri seems to view PIO participation.

Update: Priya Ranjan Das Munshi is also the Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting. One of his functions is to defend freedom of the press. So does he do better at his full time job than his part time hobby of being the AIFF president? Not according to Reporters Without Borders, a watchdog organization. India has slipped to 120th position behind the Central African Republic, Qatar, Jordan, and even Iraq. Looks like under Das Munshi, India's press freedom is eroding just like India's standing in the football world. But then he can claim that he is too busy at both his jobs to do justice to either. Meanwhile we have to watch this incompetent muddle his way through.



Source:Soccerblog.com

Salaries hit an all-time high in Indian football

Panjim: Mahesh Gawli’s Rs 1 crore deal with Dempo Sports Club is passe. Last year, when Dempo lured India’s top defender from Mahindra United with a record three year deal, jaws dropped. But a year later, the figure is no longer hairraising stuff.

This season several of India’s better known footballers will be laughing their way to the bank as clubs get magnanimous with fat pay packets, thanks to the emergence of several new clubs and Indian football’s professional surge.

Take Sunil Chhetri, the new face of Indian football, for example. The diminutive striker has inked a one year deal with East Bengal worth Rs 38 lakh with a 30 per cent assured hike when both parties sit across the table, next year.

At East Bengal, Chhetri will not be alone in the above Rs 30-lakh bracket. Mahindra United duo of Steven Dias and N P Pradeep, both reportedly unhappy with the Mumbai champions, are being pursued by East Bengal with contracts worth Rs 35 lakh each, while captain Alvito D’Cunha has successfully renegotiated a one year deal worth Rs 32 lakhs.

“I’m not bothered or disappointed to hear that a junior player is geting more than me. I am happy for them and content that the club has appreciated my performance and rewarded me accordingly,’’ Alvito told ToI.

East Bengal are willing to offer Subrata Paul, unarguably the best goalkeeper in the country, a Rs 35 lakh season contract but the Tata Football Academy graduate is understood to be mulling over a big-money move to I-League qualifiers Mumbai FC.

Subrata is now the hottest property in the Indian football market, but, even at best, he is unlikely to edge past Bhaichung Bhutia’s Rs 42-lakh deal with Mohun Bagan.

Even Goan clubs, normally tightfisted when it comes to money matters, are spending lavishly. I-League champions Dempo Sports Club is spending Rs 27 lakh to retain the services of International midfielder Climax Lawrence while Clifford Miranda, who missed out last season with a shin fracture, is also in the same bracket.

But, is the unprecedented hike in player salaries justified?
‘’It’s a simple demand and supply equation,’’ says Henry Menezes, General Manager of Mumbai FC, India’s only fully professional club.
‘’There is a huge demand for top footballers in India, but the supply is poor.

In the last five years, players’ salaries have sky-rocketed, reaching an all time high,’’ explains Menezes who has cracked major deals with players during his time with Mahindra United and now Mumbai FC.

Dempo Sports Club secretary Armando Colaco nods in agreement. “The players get what they deserve. Indian footballers have come of age and deserve every penny that is being spent on them. All this talk of Indian footballers being grossly overpaid is crap,’’ he says.

“The need of the hour for clubs is to focus on the grassroots and get their own feeder system in place. If the salary hikes continue, it will reach saturation point,’’ fears Menezes.

Source :TOI

The Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal talent hunt hits India

The Premier League giants are attempting to extend their fanbase and commercial activities by targeting the south Asian market.

When will the Indian national anthem play at the football World Cup? The question came from my neighbour's son, Keenan Almeida, as we were watching two Indian states - Goa from western Indian and Manipur from the north-east - battle it out in the national state level Under-16 championship.

Almeida is a young Indian footballer aspiring to make it big on the world stage. Like any youngster taking to the game, he too dreams of playing for his home nation in the World Cup. It is a dream cherished by many youngsters when they start to kick the football around. The World Cup football dream is fuelled every four years when youngsters like Almeida see superstars excelling for their respective countries.

The student at RM Salgaocar Higher Secondary Margao is one of the hopes of the new generation. He is among the dozen players selected from Goa to be part of the Manchester United Soccer Schools’ residential course in the UK this summer and is all set to embark on his dream trip.

The 18-year-old was excited when he was among the first six selected after a mammoth exercise conducted by United staff and assisted by locals involving more than 5,000 aspiring footballers.

A team of sports scientists from the UK, led by Dr Nick Webborn from the University of Brighton, looked at the diet, height and weight of the children to establish their potential for development in football at the highest level. It's an innovative talent identification and development programme in Goa which has not happened on such a scale anywhere in India before now. A coaching team from MUSS supervised the programme, assisted by Brian McClair, head of United's youth academy.

Almeida started his football as 10-year-old from his village Cuncolim in south Goa under coach Levino Dias and has already represented Goa in the Sun-Junior Championship at the national level. He was over the moon when his name was announced last October and he realised he would be going to the UK.

Seven months after the selection and the realisation is beginning to dawn upon him that he and his fellow Goans will be playing on the same grass as their heroes. Almeida said: ''Cristiano Ronaldo is my hero and I am looking forward to meeting him. Hopefully we will get a few tips from him and learn a few tricks after watching him practice from closer quarters.''

Besides the Manchester-bound team, three Indian teams are on foreign tours for exposure - two in South America and one in the United States. The senior team is in Portugal for exposure while the Under-16s are in Brazil and the Under-19s are in the US.

Yes, Indian football has a vision in mind backed by Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Setting up and implementing youth programmes to harness the talent in the country is one of the chief objectives of the football administrators.

Man United aren't the only ones to take notice. Arsenal have also initiated a talent hunt scheme in India - a nationwide initiative in association with Tata Tea includes a two-day hunt for soccer talents, while Chelsea have links with the Vision India programme of the AFC to develop talent in India.

With one eye on advertising revenue, English clubs are eager to find young players in India which will add to their advantage in terms of fans, shirt-buyers and game-watchers. Indian fans of English clubs are growing. With access to the internet and satellite TV, India is being targeted by the advertising, sponsorship and merchandising departments of major English clubs.

If English clubs have an eye on their finances, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) - like Almeida - is talking in terms of India’s future targets. A huge task awaits them, but Keenan Almeida and his group hold the promise which Indian administrators are looking at in achieving their own dream of World Cup qualification.

The day we see the first south Asian footballer in the top flight of English football may not be far away. And if that happens, it would be priceless in terms of both attracting fans in the UK and its former colony. A perfect match for both England and India.

Manandeep, Abhishek are Indian football’s latest finds

With Indian football chief coach Bob Houghton’s hunt for talented yet tall and sturdy Indian strikers going into full swing for the last couple of years or so, the senior Indian team management finally seems to have discovered what Houghton has been looking for all along.
And the credit goes to Collin Toal, the British coach under whose careful observation the national Under-17 team earned the distinction of qualifying for the AFC U-17 Championship. Toal now boasts of having found a player who fits these criteria and is talented enough to don the senior India shirt in the near future.

Manandeep Singh, the 17-year-old striker from Chandigarh Academy in Haryana, has already begun to repay the faith his football bosses had put on him, having impressed the team management, particularly coach Toal through his excellent show in the recently held AFC U-17 qualifiers.

Manandeep is over five feet eight inches tall and has given the impression that he is one for the future.

Asked about Manandeep, coach Toal told The Indian Express recently: “He is highly potential. He has accuracy in shooting the ball. He looks comfortable in the air also. More importantly, he is extremely opportunisitic wihin the 18-yard box. And since has got a convincing height, he is expected to perform well in international matches for the senior Indian side in the future.”

Toal then went on to mention the name of another upcoming striker who hails from the Tata Football Academy, Abhishek Das. The player had a briliant showing in the crucial U-17 qualifier against Suadi Arabia.

Commenting on Abhishek, coach Toal said: “He looks more skilled and lethal in the penetrative zone. He scored a memorable goal in that important Saudi Arabia tie that helped us earn the qualification for the AFC Youth Championship. But his only big drawback is his short height. And the lack of required height can be a major obstruction in his performance at the international level when he plays in the senior circuit.” However, after returning from a 26-day trip to the United States, the U-17 probables are expected to leave for Portugal in September for another two-week exposure trip. The team management expects the probables to get opportunity to participate in at least four tough friendly matches.

Toal said: “Our trip to Germany last time heped the boys a lot, precisely in strengthening them on the psychological front. I hope this time also the boys will have some tough matches in Portugal from which they will benefit a lot in going into competitive matches in the AFC Championship to be played in Uzbekistan in October this year. The U-17 preparatory camp will start this May in Goa and is expected to end in October.

What ails Indian football

Arbitrary selection procedures, inadequate preparation, insufficient international exposure and match-practice, and scant attention to age-group teams have been the bane of Indian football.

NOVY KAPADIA


SENEGAL became the second African nation to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup, before they lost 0-1 to Turkey in the quarter-finals of the recent 17th edition of the sporting extravaganza. It emulated the feat of Cameroon, the only other African nation to reach the quarter-finals, way back in Italia'90, before losing 2-3 to England. In the African Nations Cup held in February 2002, Senegal finished runners up to Cameroon, losing on penalty kicks in the final in Mali. For a country which got FIFA affiliation only in 1962, two years after its National football Association was formed, Senegal's achievements are remarkable.

It has just 82 registered clubs and its economy is not strong enough to support an active professional league. Kolkata has more registered clubs than the whole of Senegal. But the 'Lions of Teranga', as the team is known, excelled because as many as 21 of the 23 members of the World Cup squad play in various clubs in France.

Nigeria, which played in its third successive World Cup, is also a team of late developers. Its National Football Association was formed in 1945 and it got FIFA affiliation in 1959. Despite its social and economic problems, Nigeria has 1,400 registered professional players, who are playing all over the world, including India.

In contrast, organised football has existed for over a century in India. The Durand Cup football tournament, India's oldest football tournament started in 1888, the Rovers Cup in Mumbai in 1893 and the IFA Shield in Calcutta in 1891. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) was formed in 1937 and got FIFA affiliation in 1939. Yet, in the FIFA rankings as of June 2002, Nigeria is ranked 27th, Senegal 42nd and India 123rd.

Senegal owes its success in the World Cup to its French coach Bruno Metsu, who has got so integrated with that country that he has even married a Senegalese woman. Many feel that India's football woes can be alleviated by bringing in foreign coaches. However, there are no easy solutions. From 1982 (when the Asian Games were held in Delhi) to 1996 India experimented with five different East European coaches - Dietmar Pfiefer from the erstwhile German Democratic Republic; the late Milovan Ciric of Yugoslavia, who also coached Red Star Belgrade; Josef Gelei, Hungary's goalkeeper in the 1966 World Cup; Jiri Pesek of the Czech Republic; and Rustam Akhramov of Uzbekistan - but achieved little success.

Inadequate foreign exposure, limited opportunity with the national team and interference in team selection dampened the enthusiasm of the foreign coaches. They were shuttled between from the senior team and the age-group teams and did not devote adequate time with either team. This is in direct contrast to the impact that Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, appointed in January 2001, has had on the South Korean team. Hiddink put a lot of emphasis on power training, physical fitness and speed work. In fact, Rustam Akhramov and recent coach Syed Nayeemuddin attempted such drills with the national team but they did not get enough time with it to bring about a substantial change and there was no encouragement from the AIFF.

Hiddink also played on the psyche of the Korean players, bringing in subtle changes. In Korea, with its Confucian influence, hierarchy is all-important, and junior players were scared of the seniors in the national team. Hiddink broke this rigidity in relationships by flouting the unwritten rules governing such things as seating arrangements and speaking out of turn. As a result,the players learnt to communicate better. Hiddink achieved all this and made the Korean team one of the fittest in the world because the Korean Football Association gave him time and a free hand in the selection of the World Cup squad.

In June 2002, India appointed 39-year-old Englishman Stephen Constantine, a FIFA instructor, as national coach. His first major assignment is the coming Asian Games in Pusan, South Korea, at which event football will be played as an under-23 tournament. He is the second Englishman after Harry Wright in the 1960s to be the national coach. AIFF's new marketing agents, London-based Strata Sports, actively championed Constantine's case. How he fares and how much freedom he gets in team selection remains to be seen.

THERE have been foreign coaches for the age-group level national teams also. Ivosajih of Slovenia was coach of the India under-21 team at the third Rajiv Gandhi international tournament (under-21 years) held in Goa from May 5 to 12, 1998, but heavy losses to Iraq (1-5) and Uzbekistan (1-5) saw his contract being terminated. Islam Akhmedov of Uzbekistan was appointed coach for the India subjunior (under-16 years) team in April 2000. However, he was unable to guide India to the final rounds of the Asian championships.

In 1997, India's most successful club coach of the 1990s, Syed Nayeemuddin, was appointed national coach until the conclusion of the 1998 Bangkok Asiad. Nayeem, a disciplinarian, developed a physically fit, tactically alert and confident national team, which has dominated regional competitions. India beat the Maldives 5-1 in the 1997 SAFF Championship final and won $50,000, the highest-ever prize money it has won so far. In the same year, India, coached by Nayeem, reached the semi-finals of the Nehru Cup international tournament for the first time. Yet, the AIFF treated Nayeem shabbily and ignored all his pleas for foreign exposure ahead of the 1998 Bangkok Asiad.

Since taking over in January 2001, until the start of the 2002 World Cup on May 31, Hiddink's South Korea played 26 internationals either in friendly matches or in tournaments abroad. Contrast this with India's preparation under Syed Nayeemuddin for the 1998 Asian games. Prior to the Games, which were held in 1998, India did not play a single practice match from September 1997 to November 1998. A fortnight before the start of the Games, India played two friendly matches against Uzbekistan in Delhi and Calcutta. During his tenure Nayeem, at Rs.50,000 a month, remained the highest paid unemployed person in the country. A waste of money and talent, and a clear indication why India does not succeed in international football.

Sukhwinder Singh, who succeeded Nayeem as national coach in 1999, also received little help in terms of exposure from the AIFF. For the 1999 Asia Cup qualifying round matches in Abu Dhabi, the national team departed without a practice match even against a local club team. His team selection for the 2002 World Cup qualifiers was hampered by an AIFF directive that only three players can be selected from a club. This was apparently done to ensure the completion of the Fifth National Football league, which had been stopped for a month in January 2001 so that the Sahara Millennium Cup international football tournament could be held.

India played no friendly matches before the World Cup qualifiers. Still the Indian team did quite well and upset the 64-ranked United Arab Emirates 1-0 in the home leg in Bangalore. For the World Cup qualifiers, AIFF secretary Alberto Colaco introduced incentive payments and proper remuneration for the first time; each player in the squad got a lump sum payment of Rs.25,000. For the win against the UAE, all the 18 players got Rs.15,000 each as bonus. Sukhwinder Singh got Rs.1 lakh, assistant coach Krishnaji Rao Rs.60,000 and the goalkeepers' coach, Brahmanand, Rs.50,000. This was a creditable move and inspired the players, who had previously got a mere $10 a day on trips abroad. Sukhwinder was coach for three years and during this period India played just 31 internationals including seven matches against first and second division English clubs during the tours to that country in 2000 and 2001.

MANY of India's top footballers were amongst the best in Asia in the 1950s and 1960s. The late Jarnail Singh, Chuni Goswami, P.K. Banerjee, T. Balaram, Peter Thangaraj, Altaf Ahmed and Yusuf Khan, Prasun Banerjee and Atanu Bhattacharya have played for the Asian All Stars XI. Stopper back Jarnail Singh was even captain of the Asian All Stars XI. At one stage, in the mid-sixties, India had four players - Jarnail, Yusuf Khan, Altaf Ahmed and goalkeeper Thangaraj - in the Asian All Stars XI. Atanu Bhattacharya was the last to be selected in 1986. Right back Sudhir Karmakar was chosen the Best Defender in Asia after India came third in the 1970 Bangkok Asiad.

However, sadly, none of them had the ambition to become professionals and compete with the best in the world. They became victims of the typical middle class equilibrium trap, contented with public sector jobs and reasonable remuneration from their respective clubs. Chuni Goswami had an offer to play for Tottenham Hotspur in England in the 1960s, but declined it opting for the safety of a State Bank of India job. In the 1970s, ace winger Surojit Sengupta had offers to play as a professional in the UAE and Kuwait but declined them for the safety of a bank job in India. Baichung Bhutia became the first Indian to play in the demanding professional league in England, for Bury F.C. in the second division, from 1999 to 2002.

No Indian player has been a role model as Hidetoshi Nakata has been for Japan, who set the trend of playing in the Italian league after the 1998 World Cup. Other Japanese players such as goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (with first division club Portsmouth in England), Shinji Ono (for Feyanoord in the Netherlands) and Junichi Inamoto (with Arsenal in the 2001-02 season) have followed Nikata's example and improved as professionals. Similarly, South Korea had Ahn Jung Hwan playing for Perugia (Italy) and Seol Ki Hyeon for Anderlecht in Belgium.

Arbitrary selection, inadequate preparation, insufficient international, exposure and match-practice, and scant attention to age-group teams have been the bane of Indian football since Independence. In the 1950s when India had many talented players, domestic matches were confined to 70 minutes, instead of the internationally approved 90 minutes. Thus, Indian teams playing abroad often ran out of stamina and lost.

The stagnation of football in India can be measured in the number of tournaments organised across the country. In the 1960s and 1970s about 125 domestic tournaments were held every year all over the country. In the 1980s the number came down to about 100. In Kerala alone nine major All India tournaments were held each year. In the new millennium there are barely two dozen tournaments held every year in India. The AIFF is just not able to attract sponsors. Thus the Federation Cup, billed as the knockout cup of India, was not held for two years since 1998 for lack of a sponsor. It was revived in 2001, with the AIFF bearing the costs. The Nehru Cup, started with fanfare in 1982 to provide international exposure to Indian players, has not been held since 1997. Now, India's junior and sub-junior teams are chosen and trained only for participation in Asian championships and get limited exposure. There is little follow-up on talented players who emerge from the Northeastern region and the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

FOR so many years Indian football has remained an enigma. It is the most popular spectator sport at the domestic level. A record 131,000 people witnessed the KBL-Federation Cup semifinal between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan in July 1997 at the Salt Lake Stadium in Calcutta. Crowds in the range of 70,000 to 100,000 are frequent in Kerala and Bengal for the Federation Cup or Nehru Cup international football tournaments. In smaller football centres like Goa, Bangalore and Delhi, capacity crowds in the region of 25,000 to 35,000 often witness needle matches involving Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, Mohammedan Sporting, Salgaocar and Dempo Goa, F.C. Kochin, JCT and in earlier days Hyderabad City Police. Despite such a massive following, football has not evolved into a professional game in India, as it has in Japan, South Korea and in West Asia. None of the Indian clubs own stadiums or have easy access to modern gymnasiums. Even established clubs like Mohun Bagan and East Bengal lease their grounds at the Calcutta Maidan from the Indian Army.

The major factor is that unlike cricket, football has not been marketed efficiently. Thus, instead of growing in popularity, football in India is confined to West Bengal, Goa, Kerala, the Northeastern States and small areas in Mumbai and Delhi. Traditionally strong areas of football like Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai have declined owing to inefficient management by the State associations and vote bank politics of the AIFF.

The 1951 to 1962 decade was the best for India at the international level. It was among the top teams in Asia, winning the Asian Games gold medal twice - in 1951 at Delhi and 1962 at Jakarta. It was twice runners up in the Merdeka football tournament at Kuala Lumpur, in 1959 and 1964, and runner up in the Asia Cup in Israel in 1964. India finished fourth in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and was the first Asian nation to reach the Olympic football semi-final. India beat Australia 4-2 in the quarter-finals and centre forward Neville D'Souza became the first and until now only Asian to score a hat trick in the Olympics. From 1948 to 1960 India played regularly and with reasonable distinction in every Olympics. India also won the Quadrangular tournament, involving India, Burma, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, four times from 1952 to '55.

However, in the last three decades instances of success have been limited. Since 1960 India has not qualified for the Olympics. It has never made it to the World Cup finals and since 1984 not even to the Asia Cup final rounds. The last quarter-final appearance in the Asian Games was in 1982 in Delhi. It won a bronze medal in the 1970 Bangkok Asian Games and the Indian junior team was joint winners with Iran in the Asian Youth championships in 1974. In the 1980s India won the South Asian Federation Games gold medal three times - 1985 in Dhaka, 1987 in Calcutta and 1995 in Chennai. It won the SAFF Championships too three times - 1993 in Lahore, 1997 in Kathmandu and 1999 in Goa. However, India's domination at the South Asian level is not as pronounced as it was at the Quadrangular tournament in the 1950s. Professional management, better marketing, greater attention to the National team and broadbasing the game in different States are required for Indian football to have a brighter future in the 21st century.

Man Utd chiefs excited by India football potential

5,500 aspiring young footballers have had their skills assessed by himself and a posse of coaches - 16 are being selected to attend a residential training school at the club next summer, and it is possible some may get to the United academy, says the Independent on Sunday.
The success of this initiative, which has been backed by the All India Football Federation, could lead to similar schemes throughout the country, and the establishment of a permanent India-based United football school to add to those already in countries such as South Africa, Canada and Hong Kong.
McClair, 43, says he is excited by the potential he has seen.
"In India there has been massive investment in sports like cricket and hockey for years. Sport is a way of life in India, and now there are signs that football can also be a big part of it too. It will grow, I am hopeful eventually we could have Indian players in the Premiership, although this could take five to 10 years."ord=Math.random()*10000000000000000;document.write('');
Dale Hobson, Manchester United Soccer Schools' inter-national development director, adds: "If you had just one Indian in the Premier League, football would go into the stratosphere there. The scope of Indian football could be colossal."
McClair says the growing popularity of the sport is evident in Goa, where the strong Portuguese influence makes it more likely you will see kids wearing a Ronaldo shirt than a Rooney one.
"You see the majority of youngsters - and a lot of adults too - walking around in football shirts. Not just Manchester United but other top clubs and other countries, notably Portugal, but the Premiership is by far the most popular."
The youngsters who took part in the project were aged between 10 and 16. "Obviously the skills we evaluate are quite basic, but football is played in schools, and I visited a couple where there was quite skilful manipulation of the ball. They seem to have a natural balance and flair.
"Historically, youngsters in India, and to some extent those from the Asian communities in Britain, have focused on other sports. But over the next decade this is likely to change."
Sir Alex Ferguson agrees. "This club has a tradition of nurturing young talent, and if we can play a part in accelerating the development of young footballers in India I'll be delighted."

Here's Nike's India game plan

Did you see anything different about the Indian cricket team's uniforms? If you were too busy groaning over the lacklustre performance to notice, let us point it out: there's a little swoosh on the arm and below the right collar. It's small, but it's significant.

For the first time, Nike's logo is appearing in connection with an "Indian" sport: cricket. A few months ago, Nike wrested the rights to become the official kit sponsor for the Indian cricket team for the next five years, beating arch-rivals Reebok and Adidas; it paid Rs 196 crore (Rs 1.96 billion) to the Board of Control for Cricket in India for the privilege.

The first "Just Do It" cricket ad also made its appearance during the Champions Trophy last month. "We want to look at what drives the passion for cricket in India. We aim to connect emotionally with our customers," declares Sanjay Gangopadhyay, marketing director, Nike India.

The swoosh has finally swung, and how. The American sports footwear and apparel giant has had a presence in India for close to a decade, but it's consciously held on to its "international" image.

Where Sachin Tendulkar and Dhanraj Pillai were endorsing rivals' products, Nike's ads stuck to Maria Sharapova and Ronaldinho. India didn't really figure in the company's marketing and promotion activities.

That's changed now. And it's likely to change the rules of the game of the Rs 1,100-crore (Rs 11 billion) Indian sports footwear and apparel market.

All these years, market leadership has eluded Nike in India. This is the only market where Reebok is No. 1 (40 per cent marketshare), followed by Adidas (20 per cent). Nike's 15 per cent share is a distant third (source: Technopak Advisors). Will the change in positioning tilt the balance of power now?

A fresh start

Other sports companies realised the value of adapting to Indian consumers long ago. What delayed Nike? The operational arrangement was probably to blame: Nike's entry into India was through a seven-year licence agreement with Sierra Industrial Enterprises, unlike Reebok, for instance, which is a fully-owned subsidiary of the American parent.

In 2004, instead of renewing the franchise, Nike India became a subsidiary.

It was an opportunity to start afresh, with greater independence, and Nike is aware of it. "The Indian market is growing in terms of retail, customer spends and awareness. It only made sense for us to cash in on these opportunities as early as possible," says Gangopadhyay.

In fact, ask Nike executives and they'll tell you the company is "just two years old in India" - as if the previous seven-odd years never existed.

The company figures that it is critical to connect emotionally with customers. And in a cricket-crazy nation like India, you don't need to think too hard about how to do that. Even rival Reebok agrees.

"You can't be present in India without being associated with cricket," wryly comments Subhinder Singh Prem, managing director, Reebok India. "But to build a successful association, you can't see cricket as a seasonal activity," he warns.

Nike is listening. Witness the five-year contract with the BCCI. "We wanted to first show our loyalty to Team India, to prove our commitment towards the market and win the confidence of cricket fans," says Gangopadhyay.

That was followed by the introduction of Nike's first cricket shoes. The Air Zoom Yorker was launched this September by pace bowlers S Sreesanth and New Zealand's Shane Bond, who have also been signed on brand ambassadors for the product. A shoe for batsmen, the Air Zoom Opener, followed.

Besides, the BCCI deal allows Nike to launch official cricket merchandise such as replica team T-shirts and jerseys, kit bags and backpacks. That's not just a huge branding opportunity, it's a potential money-spinner: retail consultants estimate the licensed merchandise business could bring in more than $20 million in the first year itself.

Nike is also thinking ahead and taking its commitment to cricket to the grassroots level. In December 2005, it tied up with coaching schools like the BCCI's National Cricket Academy.

The academies will work with Nike to understand the product requirements of the players. It's a win-win situation for both the company and the academies. While Nike creates brand awareness and has a shot at creating loyalists at a young, impressionable age, the academies' need for equipment such as shoes and training gear is looked after by the company.

"This is good move by Nike to promote products at a serious level and to build brand awareness through its commitment to develop sports in India," says Harminder Sahni, chief operating officer, Technopak Advisors.

Catch 'em young

There's nothing original about the focus on cricket, but elsewhere Nike is stamping out fresh ground. Players like Reebok and Puma are looking at extending the sports product line as a lifestyle brand for the 17-35 years age group.

While Reebok is looking at increasing its exclusive women's stores from the existing three to 10 by next year, 70 per cent of the merchandise in Puma stores is lifestyle-, and not sport-related.

But when Nike talks of young customers, it means young. Across the world, its core audience is between 12 and17 years, and it sees no reason why India should be any different.

"We want to inspire youth to become serious about sports that interest them," says Gangopadhyay. The cricket ad, for instance, is clearly targeted at this group.

The ad showcases some of India's finest cricket moments in recent times: Virendra Sehwag becoming the first Indian to score 300 runs in a test match and the dramatic win for India in the Natwest series in 2002. You won't find any memories of the Prudential Cup win of the 1980s in this supersized, 300-second commercial: the target group isn't likely to relate with an event that's not just historical, it's history.

"Children today don't just play the game, they also understand how serious it is. That is why instead of showing cricketers, we decided to show moments that highlight the achievements of cricketers," says Namita Agarwal, creative head, JWT, the agency behind the campaign.

The sponsorships of the cricket academies and the ad isn't the only child-friendly tactic Nike is adopting. It has also launched its cricket shoes and the replica gear in small sizes. That's a good move, say retail consultants. "Targeting kids will help Nike build the brand and create a long-term effect by addressing customers' needs at an early age," says Sahni.

There's some doubt, though, on whether cricket is the best sport to communicate the brand's values to a young, discerning audience.

"Brands like Nike are clearly focused on the upper segment of consumers. I'm not sure whether cricket is any longer such a popular sport with that group. Young consumers in the upper strata are more likely to be tuned into events like the NBA or Premier League Football," Sahni adds.

Be a sport

For its part, Nike isn't taking any chances. The company is also paying attention to other popular sports in the country, such as tennis and football. Of course, it hasn't started any aggressive marketing initiatives for these sports, but the company is determined to tap into the under-15 group here as well.

After announcing its partnership with the All India Football Federation in March 2006, Nike gave an opportunity to the Indian leg of under-15 players to participate in the Manchester United Premier Cup, an annual international Nike tournament.

The winners of this India round were then flown to Bangkok to participate in the South East Asia leg. Further, to inspire its audience the company has signed on India's leading football star Bhaichung Bhutia to endorse its products.

Tennis, too, is being given a hand-up. Under Nike's deal with the Bhupathi Tennis Academy, promising players in the under-12 and under-14 categories will get a chance to participate in the Nike Junior Tour's International Masters Championship, played at international venues like Nice, France.

Retail analysts agree that Nike's efforts will certainly help it create new space within the Indian sports footwear and apparel market.

"It might help Nike change its position since it has taken a different approach from the competition. One, by extending its commitment to emerging sports and two, by involving young talent at an early stage," says Sahni