Football is the most popular sport in the world by a mile. No sport even comes close to its popularity. It is played by over almost half of world’s population. The FIFA World Cup 2018 Final was watched by a billion people from all over the world. The most prominent places to gauge the popularity of this sport are Europe, South America, Africa and Asia. Although it is extremely popular in India, there is not any remarkable and groundbreaking growth that has elevated the sport. It is still very difficult to be a football professional in this country.
Below are the 5 biggest challenges for the growth of football in India:
1. Lack of infrastructure
One of the serious issues in Indian football is the shortfall of infrastructure. Regardless of whether it's legitimate arenas or preparing grounds, the game is seriously ailing in tons of areas. Most I-League settings are multi-purpose arenas and need significant renovation to be prepared for the worldwide football competitions if they happen in the future. A larger part of the scenes either have a place with the state government or local municipalities, and not to the football clubs. It's a given then that they are not kept up as expected and are regularly made accessible for public shows and concerts. Because of the poor infrastructure, the senior football team have to train at the foreign countries.
2. Slow youth development
There is no proper structure to promote the rising youth who have a talent and skills to play the sport of football. Although the AIFF has attempted to change that in the recent past by beginning regional foundations, the advancement has been slow particularly compared to other Asian countries. The development has also been hampered by several cases of age fraud among the youth.
3. Unprofessional approach of the clubs
One of the primary reasons why the I-League hasn't been made a different lawful substance is that the clubs don't have their own house in place. Verification of that came sometime ago when all contesting clubs failed in the AFC club licensing test. Pune FC got the license that too on appeal. There have been a lot of cases of corruption that have made the clubs unprofessional in their approach and this was the main reason for the failure to cross the AFC club licensing test.
4. Lack of football culture
Football in this country is popular and well followed by people but it is still considered as a serious profession. It does not command the same viewership as some other sports like cricket, badminton. It is way behind as a survey said that only 6% of the population watches football. Cricket has become a more viable option in terms of choosing a sport to play and watch with others even places such as Kolkata, which is rich in football. Kids do play the sport seriously till college level but cannot continue to due to lack of exposure in clubs.
5. Lack of exposure
There is a serious lack of exposure for kids who are serious about playing football in this country. Kids who play football often have to leave the sport as they see no future in it. Also there are not many football idols in this country to look up to. Barring Sunil Chhetri and Baichung Bhutia, India has not been able to promote and nurture national talent and no other footballer is as popular other than these two icons.
