India cheers men’s football while women lament terminal decline
India’s national women’s football team has slipped four places in the latest FIFA world rankings, dropping to the 60th place.
The recent slump is the continuation of a gradual fall in the rankings in recent years, the team having stood 49th in 2013.
The All India Football Federation (AIFF) president, Praful Patel, had recently termed the rise of the Indian men’s team to the top 100 in the FIFA rankings as a ‘revolution’.
At the annual AIFF awards ceremony, he also commented on women’s football. “I must tell you, if you put heart and soul (into it), women’s team can make the country proud like the men’s team,” he said.
Patel’s remark begs a question. Who is responsible for putting one’s ‘heart and soul’ towards improving the women’s game?
Juhi Shah had captained Mumbai-based Bodyline SC at the preliminary round of the inaugural Indian Women’s League (IWL) last year. She blames a lack of international matches for the slump.
“Here’s where the problem lies. The national team has played no international friendly since May 2013 (vs Bahrain). The selection-cum-national-team camps last one month, and on an average India have played only four internationals (per year) in recent years. And these games too are mainly due to international tournaments,” she told Hindustan Times.
Her sentiments are echoed by Bembem Devi, India’s most successful female footballer, and in terms of titles won, the most decorated across men and women. She retired from the sport after winning the IWL title with Imphal’s Eastern Sporting Union this year.
“Before the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers (in April 2017), for instance, the only matches the team played were at the South Asian Games (in February 2016) and the Women’s SAFF Championship (December–January).
“Not a single friendly against an international side was organised before that. As a result, our performances at the event were not up to the mark, and now our ranking has gone down.”
The AIFF has launched the IWL, the final round of which was held earlier this year. Six teams played the final round held at Delhi’s Ambedkar Stadium within 18 days. But will it be enough to provide impetus for the women’s game to grow?
“I am happy they have started a national league, but we will have to wait and see how they plan to improve and expand it. For the league to grow, it has to be held on a home-and-away basis. If AIFF wants to develop women’s football, it has to spend some money for it,” said Bembem Devi.
“Look, players in the men’s national team get to play in the I-League and ISL, meaning they are always ready to be called into competitive international action. The same is not true for the women. The league started only this year. It ran for a month, and apart from it, we just have camps before international matches, which is not enough to maintain match fitness,” she added.
Juhi Shah rued the lack of interest among India’s top football clubs for the women’s league.
“We may have seen the first edition of the IWL, but only six teams participated (in the final round), out of which only one I-League club (Aizawl FC) and one ISL franchise (FC Pune City) participated. Around 9-11 teams had shown their interest in taking part,” she said.
The administrators do so much for the men’s game. Why don’t they put in as much effort for the women’s game? Women have played no international friendly since May, 2013... the average played in recent years is four
Last year, AIFF held elections for the executive committee and 17 men were elected unopposed. There were no women.
Subsequently, Sara Pilot, wife of Congress leader Sachin Pilot, was inducted into the committee earlier this year, while Anjali Shah, director of Premier India Football Academy (PIFA), was nominated as the second woman member of the panel this month.
The lack of women administrators at AIFF as well as state bodies has become the norm over the years. However, the bigger concern is that there hasn’t been much of a change in the administrators’ attitude towards women’s football despite FIFA delisting India from the world rankings in 2009 for being inactive for more than 18 months.
“The administrators do so much for men’s football. I don’t know why they don’t put in as much effort for the women’s game,” Bembem lamented. “If they are not too bothered about women’s football, it is only natural our ranking will go down.”