Indian Football
Football is a becoming a popular sport in india. Most of the children in school play football during their physical education periods. The game is very famous in north eastern states and west bengal. Its also gaining popularity in all other states. India were once champions in asia. But now they are struggling to win even easy opponents. The funding for football is very less and its been neglected all these days and preference is always given to cricket. Kolkatta is the football hotspot in the country. There are 2 famous clubs in the city. They are east bengal club and mohun bagan AC.
The AIFF(All India Football Federation) governs the game in india. The indian football team entered both asian and world cup competitions. The latest FIFA rankings indicate india is in 149th rank among world football teams. The standard of indian football is very poor when compared to european and other countries. There is lack in proper training mechanism for players. The infrastructure of the game is very poor in india due to lack of funding.
The game of football spread to india form england. The indian team was successful after independence as it qualified for both olympic and world cup championships. The indian football team qualified for 1950 world cup but sadly they did'nt play as they did not have shoes and they were bare footed. In 1951 and 1962 India won gold in the asian games.
First time India won nehru cup was in august 2007 where thet won syria 1-0.
India defeated Tajikistan in august 2008 to win AFC cup.
India qualified for 2011 AFC asian cup.
Last month August 2009 india once again defeated syria 6-5 to win the nehru cup.
The win in nehru cup has given some hope for revival of indian football. Lets hope india do well in asia cup and qualify for world cup. I like football very much and whenever i watch a match i think why india cant paly world cup and the reason is Indian people always encourage cricket and pray pray the cricket players as god. People should recognize other games like football,hockey etc .. I hope government takes necessary steps to make indian football recognized worldwide and provides funding and infrastructure.
My last wish is will i see india playing a world cup match in my lifetime?
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