Most of you know that from June 11 till July 11 the worlds most important event takes place, the Soccer World Championship in South Africa.
While I was researching the important matches and trying to fit that somehow into our India schedule, I realized that India does not participate in the World Championship. I was stunned, should this country of 1.2 bln have no decent soccer players? I mean even North Korea (not exactly known as a soccer super power) somehow qualified. So, where is India?
I was even more surprised to learn, that soccer is extremely popular in India even outnumbering cricket and hockey. It is extremely popular with the lower and middle class. The Yuba Bharati Krirangan Stadium in Calcutta is the second largest Stadium in the world, and the 120.000 seats are sold out on games of the Indian premier league.
So even though there is a large population of soccer fans and soccer player the Indian national team (aka The Bhangra Boys) never qualified even once for a soccer world championship. However, in 1950, for political reasons some team withdrew, and India moved up, and was invited to play in the world championship. Surprisingly the All India Football Federation decided to pass because the FIFA required all players to wear shoes, an unacceptable infringement on the liberties of the Indian team, which was known to play without shoes but with bandages.
Let’s see and wait what happens in 2014.
- Vitus Holzner
Sources:
http://www.taz.de/1/sport/artikel/1/der-wecker-ist-gestellt/
http://www.footage-magazin.de/index_ndim536.php
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indische_Fußballnationalmannschaft
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fußball-Weltmeisterschaft_1950
India will not become a soccer nation. Soccer is one of the most difficult sports for a new country to breakthrough because it is such a part of national identity in many countries that have much stronger infrastructure for finding and developing talent. They may be able to qualify for some World Cups in the future if they improve because they are in a weak region of the world, but even a country like the USA has put a lot of resources into becoming better at soccer but can not breakthrough. England are the founders of the game and they are not even one of the world class teams lately. Brazil is always going to field a strong team, Spain is in the middle of a golden generation, the Netherlands always have a strong team, and Germany are strong tacticians. The World Cup occurs next summer and I look forward to seeing who is able to win but it won’t be India.
Soccer without shoes? It’s a cultural concept that I did not conceive of prior to reading this article. After all, in the U.S., soccer players wear not only shoes, but cleats! I personally never go barefoot in public places because I am terrified of having hookworm, podoconiosis, schistosomiasis, or other organisms burrow into my foot and killing me from within – just read articles published by Samaritan’s Feet International. I think India will have to learn to wear shoes on this one, even though I agree that barefoot would be more comfortable!
More information: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:tFGZqw6d_5UJ:www.samaritansfeet.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/SFDyingwithoutShoes.pdf+no+shoes+soil+bacteria&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjyHlckTMcuV4jUViO5uOsKB-QNhBCKTEg78fwZu-UpOZIpQCY3Y7M4I76Dfg2XGpJJ6sfrJxgZSplerWmG1Dj2fE-5sXIkpqoDXqTAMq9-nazWSYbsRKBJfKEoCN5gbauH1vTl&sig=AHIEtbSGjowCPTYT5h4bAUKmVI6dBt55ow
Wow. This is interesting. I am in no way a soccer fan. But every four years when the World Cup is on everyone’s mind, it’s hard not to get caught up in all the excitement. That is just crazy that India has never qualified for the World Cup. Even more so when you hear that the sport is more popular than cricket and field hockey. And with the world’s second largest soccer stadium?! As India continues to grow and obtain a stronger presence on the world stage, it should strive to at least participate in events like the World Cup. What pride the country would experience if it were to even send a team to the cup; and what if it won?! You would have over a billion people cheering for a small sports team. How exciting would that be? I hope that India does participate in next years World Cup in Brazil. Its people would benefit so much from sending a team to represent them on the world stage.
India might be a soccer nation but not at the international level. To be a soccer nation a country must be passionate about the sport and India obviously is. Just because they do not qualify for World Cup does not mean it is not a soccer nation. The fact that they play barefoot only shows the passion for the sports. I assume it comes from the fact that India’s low income population which is especially passionate about the sport simply did not have money for shoes. And it became a tradition. The World Cup is the event everyone is interested in even they are not into soccer. It is the time when everybody watches soccer games and hopes for a victory. It would absolutely great if India could qualify for the World Cup in 2014.