The irony of the situation should not be overlooked, despite the attention-grabbing photos of Indian soccer supporters dancing and celebrating the world’s biggest sports fiesta 2,885 kilometers away in Qatar, particularly in Kerala and Bengal.
Even if they were loud, committed, and well-informed, India could have played in the World Cup of soccer with a little luck and foresight, not to mention administrative and political insight.
It would have been a different tale if India had continued to prioritize football in the early 1960s rather than switching its whole attention to cricket, a sport that was only played by a small number of former British colonies. In fact, it would have been a lot more well-known tale than the cricket narrative, which only roughly half of the globe is familiar with.
The Syed Abdul Rahim era, from 1951 to 1962, when India’s football team rose to become one of the greatest in Asia, is regarded as the golden age of Indian football.
The 1950s had a promising start. India, the games’ hosts, won the 1951 Asian Games by defeating Indonesia and Afghanistan 3-0 en route to the championship match, where they defeated Iran 1-0. Iran took part in the 2022 World Cup.
India maintained their success in 1952 by taking home the Colombo Quadrangular Cup, which was played in Sri Lanka. She went on to win three additional competitions for the Quadrangular Cup, which were held in 1953, 1954, and 1955 in Burma, Calcutta, and Dhaka, respectively.
India performed poorly at the 1954 Manila Asiad but did well at the 1956 Olympics.
Neville D’Souza’s hat trick against Australia helped India defeat the hosts 4-2 and advance to the Olympic semifinals, becoming the first Asian team to do so. They eventually fell to Bulgaria 3-0 after losing 4-1 to Yugoslavia. Australia took part in the 2022 World Cup as well.
India placed second in the 1959 Merdeka Cup in Malaysia, but fourth at the 1958 Tokyo Asiad. After defeating South Korea 2-1 in the championship game, India went on to win the 1962 Asian Games. South Korea has qualified for the World Cup.
The nation’s performances at the Merdeka Cup in 1964, 1965, and 1966, where they placed second, third, and fourth, respectively, showed promise.
The early 1960s saw Indian football suffer greatly after Rahim’s passing. Even then, India defeated Japan 1-0 in the play-off to finish third at the 1970 Asiad. Japan recently made headlines when it defeated Germany and Spain, two former world champions, in the World Cup.
A youth Indian team and an Iranian team shared the Youth Asian Cup victory in the middle of the 1970s. The days of India becoming a rising soccer powerhouse by the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s were over. Cricket was permanently ingrained in the nation’s consciousness, and the rest is history.
There is some FIFA history as well. India automatically qualified for the 1950 FIFA World Cup finals when its opponents pulled out, but the All-India Football Federation (AIFF), the country’s governing body, wisely decided against going because it seemed to lack understanding of the significance of the event at the time.
Despite FIFA’s kind offer to fully cover the majority of the trip costs, the cost of travel was officially given as the reason why a team did not participate in the World Cup. But the smart people decided that the Olympics were more significant than the World Cup. Until 2018, when they overcame Nepal 2-0 over the course of two home-and-away matches, India had not advanced past the first round of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. Describe your long-sightedness.
The Golden Era of Indian football was characterized by the holy trio of PK Banerjee, Tulsidas Balaram, and Chuni Goswami. Banerjee’s iconic goal at the 1960 Rome Olympics won India a renowned 1-1 draw with France. He was named the Indian Footballer of the 20th Century by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics and received the FIFA Centennial Order of Merit (IFFHS).
Chuni Goswami, who led India to an Asiad Gold at the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta, reportedly received a trial offer from premier English side Tottenham Hotspur but declined it out of loyalty to Mohun Bagan.
The other greats of the Golden Era included Yusuf Khan, Neville D’Souza, Ram Bahadur, legendary captain Sailen Mann, who was poised to represent India at FIFA 1950, Jarnail Singh, the toughest tackler in Asia of his era, and Peter Thangraj, a star goalkeeper who excelled during the 1956 and 1960 Olympics.
It’s especially infuriating because some of the oldest football clubs in the world are located in India. In the middle of the nineteenth century, British soldiers popularised the sport.
Mortimer Durand, the foreign secretary of India at the time, established the Durand Cup at Shimla in 1888. After the FA Cup and Scottish Cup, it is still the third-oldest football competition in the world. As the Mohun Bagan Sporting Club, Mohun Bagan AC is the oldest active team in India. Several more, including Aryan Club, Sovabazar, and Calcutta FC, was founded in Calcutta in the 1890s.
The fourth-oldest trophy in existence, the IFA Shield, was established in 1893, and Calcutta—then the capital of British India—became the center of Indian football.
The oldest football club in south India was founded on February 20, 1899, in Thrissur, Kerala, and was named after the Kochi Police SP, RB Ferguson. In the early 1900s, it went on to play a significant part in promoting football in Kerala.
It’s not like celebrities or money is in short supply. Even now, without any frills and publicity, any match at Delhi’s Ambedkar Stadium or at another significant soccer hub in the nation draws a substantial audience. That such a legacy has been allowed to deteriorate is unfortunate.
A million Indian hearts were broken a few years ago when tennis player Maria Sharapova claimed she had never heard of Sachin Tendulkar. Who can blame her? It is improbable that someone has played cricket if they are not from a former British colony. It turns out that it is not a universal sport like football.
News Mania Desk
