Indian football: Trouble brews on and off the field, barren streak continues

The sense of hope around Indian football — which prevailed little more than a year back with the Blue Tigers qualifying for back-to-back Asian Cup finals and winning two tournaments at home — seems like a mirage now. The team has forgotten how to win matches, the multi-tasking head coach is trying to heap the blame on the players while off the pitch and the administration of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) seems to be a mess.

Things came to a head when on Tuesday, 25 March, the national team dished out a lacklusture performance for a goalless draw against Bangladesh to open their qualifying campaign for 2027 AFC Asian Cup campaign in Shillong.

The return of Sunil Chhetri from international retirement failed to end their dismal run at scoring goals —  blanking lowly Maldives 3-0 in a friendly being an exception — and challenged Spanish head coach Manolo Marquez to not lose his cool before the media.

‘’I don’t have words to explain this poor, poor performance from everyone. This is not enough. But may be this is the reality of Indian football,’’ a livid Marquez said.

The retrograde step of recalling Chhetri, 40, from international retirement on the basis of goalscoring form in the Indian Super League (ISL) also seemed ill-advised, as he failed to break free of the shackles against Hamza Chowdhury — the Premiership player who has opted to represent Bangladesh, his country of origin.

The draw, thankfully, does not mean curtains to India’s hopes of making the final round of the Asian Cup finals for the third time in a row though.

The other two teams in India’s group — Hong Kong and Singapore — also drew on Tuesday, which leaves all four teams at 1 point each. Only the topper will move to the second round of the qualifiers.

India’s next assignment will be in June, when they travel to Hong Kong, ranked below them at 155, though the away game against Bangladesh does not seem to be an easy one under the circumstances either.

Speaking to National Herald over phone,  Baichung Bhutia — former India captain and the biggest brand ambassador of Indian football in the pre-Chhetri generation — tried to break down what has been going wrong with India’s approach in recent games.

“In both the games against a weak Maldives and Bangladesh, India’s attacks were too predictable. They were going wide and trying to send in crosses for Sunil to connect the headers — hence, it was easier to contain them. There were no runs down the middle or signs of creativity which could split the rival defence open,” said Bhutia, a Padmashri awardee.

It was under Bhutia’s mentorship that Chhetri took his bow in India colours and their mutual admiration is well-known. Yet, asked how logical a decision it was to bring Chhetri back for these qualifiers, Bhutia did not mince his words: ‘’I believe it was the coach who requested Sunil to reconsider his decision, but I would have preferred a younger player in his position. Having Sunil may create a psychological pressure on the opponents but at the same time, it makes the team’s style somewhat predictable.’’

While Bhutia feels Manolo needs more time before any verdict is arrived at, the question that begs to be asked is the wisdom of appointing someone as the national coach who would also be multi-tasking as the head coach of Goa FC in the recent edition of Indian Super League (ISL). The move is being seen as face saver as the AIFF needed a candidature with some reputation after sacking the high profile coach Igor Stimac unceremoniously after the team failed to qualify for the third round of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

If the Blue Tigers’ performance on the pitch raised enough cause for concern, the image of football administration in the country has taken a huge beating over the past year as well.

Kalyan Chaubey, the AIFF president, has found himself at the receiving end of a number of corruption charges — right from Stimac’s outburst to the recent barrage of mails from Gopalkrishna Kosaraju, a member of the working committee and founder-president of the Andhra Pradesh Football Association.

Earlier this month, Jaydeep Basu, the director of media and communication for the AIFF, was handed his termination — apparently on the grounds that he was vocal about demanding an increment for his department members.

Basu, in a strongly worded mail to the executive committee, says: ‘’To put it straight, the current management of the AIFF, with Kalyan Chaubey and Anilkumar P. at the helm, has reduced the Football House from a professional set-up to a roadside grocery shop with their remarkable inefficiency. They have left the staff completely demotivated and frustrated. The majority of the staff feel that the appalling lack of ability of the top management to guide and raise a vision has totally derailed the progress of the game in India.’’

It could be a case of employee’s grouse; but one thing is certain — all is certainly not well with Indian football, on and off the field!