Recently, there has been controversy over the FIFA match between Bharat and Qatar. This controversy started over the equalizing goal scored by host country Qatar. In this, despite kicking the ball outside, which should have resulted in a goal kick, the referee rejected the clear outside goal, and the footballer Yousef Ayman scored the equalizing goal. This match ended with Bharat’s loss with a score of 2-1. If Bharat would have won this match, she would have qualified for the FIFA Tournament itself.
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The Bharat vs Qatar Match
Lallianzuala Chhangte is clearly the hero of the match, and his ability to make the Qatar team trail will definitely bring more eyes to Bharat’s football scene.
On the other hand, the ball that was keeped really well by keeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, was given a wrong call that the referees decided to stick with.
The image above shows how the ball was completely outside the goal line. Yet, the referee did not give the Qatar team an “outside”. This isn’t the first time that Qatar was blamed for match fixing. Netizens also suspect foul play.
No Context Indian Football posted the following artwork on their twitter:
The referee who gave the wrong call was “Kim Woo-Sung”, who is from South Korea. Considering the increased racism towards Bharatians coming from Korea and Qatar, many can say this was bound to happen.
Bharat is not just the land of cricket. There are huge fans of football from Keralam, Tamil Nadu, Lakshadweep, Pune (in Maharashtra), Kashi (in UP), Assam, and Manipur. Almost each state has a team. As Bharat becomes a domineering force in cricket, squeezing even the other oligarch countries Britain and Australia, people find football more engaging. The Cricket world cup consists of 8 countries, and is on the decline. Meanwhile, the FIFA world cup had 18 countries this year in the world cup. Many domestic tournaments for football, and even Kabaddi, have emerged and attracted large domestic crowds.
Even China, as part of their diplomatic dominance strategy over the world, tried to bring itself to the fore with Cricket. China’s solution involved throwing money at the problem, and this created heavy and irreversible corruption to Chinese football which reduced their chances of making a mark.
Interest in football also saw an irreversible spike after a push was made on why Football was discontinued on the global stage. Official documents that cited a lack of funds and an unwillingness to play with shoes (most Bharatian players preferred playing barefoot) were given.
Some netizens were quick to blame Nehru directly, as these choices came during his government and he had made comments on Football. This political controversy gave more fuel to the sport.
Movies like Maidaan starring Ajay Devgn have also added an extra push for the sport. Maidaan is a biographical film about the legendary football coach Syed Abdul Rahim who took Bharat to Gold Medal in the Asian Games.
Bharat’s standing in Football
In the FIFA rankings, Bharat comes at a lowly 121 rank. In the FIFA qualifying matches so far, it has lost every single match. This includes the match against Qatar that has made it to the news. While the odds are against us due to socio-political reasons, this poor performance has a lot to do with the team’s performance itself.
Sunil Chhetri, who is 39 years old, played his final match in the same FIFA qualifying tournament against Kuwait, and lost that as well. The average age of the team is 26 years of age, with the youngest player being 23 and oldest being 31. With Sunil Chhetri, this age would be 33 years average. The average age for a football team is 24, with most players being under the age of 21.
This is accompanied by a rising, but not a high enough presence, of Bharat in football. Our country has seen a repeated neglect of most sports outside cricket, and football is no different.
One cannot make a celebrity out of footballers in Bharat today.
While our team is not short of talent, it is definitely short on talent. While our players are very skilled, new talented players in football are a scarcity. People don’t have an eye for a talented football player like they do for cricket. The talent scouting apparatus is not there. There must be many football talents across the country, but they never discover themselves, and we never discover them.
Conclusion
Bharat is not seen on the global stage as a sporty country because of our lack of presence in global sports like football and basketball. Cricket is seen as the lazy man’s game. Most countries have rejected cricket entirely as cricket is a symbol of colonialism. Meanwhile, football represents a much more global and egalitarian sport, and if we put aside Qatar’s racism we should appreciate their ability to make a mark on the sport.
Bharat needs to invest huge sums in some sports, and rich amounts in many sports. We have made breakthroughs in javelin throwing, shooting, field hockey, wrestling and chess. These sports are individualistic; this means that we can invest large resources in a single person. We have to upgrade our sports apparatus to a point where we can scout, pick, train and field an entire team to play in a globally recognized sport. We must follow the trends.
With rising obesity, to create a culture around sports, that too one where there is global competition, is in our nationalistic interests. More youth should enter football as players, and older people should encourage their children towards football.
