For India, the World Cup can wait
boys and girls, across India. It is said that there are four steps that help you become a footballer — train, learn, enjoy and compete. We really need to firm up the compete bit from the Under-7 to Under-16 levels. That is also how we get the community involved.
If I have a dream, it is not about the World Cup. It is about having such tournaments competently organised across India every year, 5,000 of them down to every panchayat. This kind of community involvement does exist in the North-east but it is restricted to a few months of the year; we need to have it more often. India’s state and district associations should be involved in such an initiative. I think there is a major disconnect in what they do and helping football grow.
From the time I started, there have been a lot of positives. I played one tournament — the national championships — when I was in the Under-16 and these days, our junior national teams go abroad for practise games. India now has Under-16 and Under-18 leagues and national leagues. It is a start but the leagues need to be a lot more broad- based.
India needs to qualify for the Asian Cup regularly and then aim for the knockout stages there. For a perspective on how difficult that is consider this: it took South Korea five World Cup appearances to get their first win. For now, India should aim to be among the top 10 in Asia. The World Cup can wait.
Padma Shri Bhaichung Bhutia played a record 104 times for India. The former India captain has been inducted into the Asian Football Hall of Fame The views expressed are personal