The Best Foot Forward

For a change, I keep off the theme of my days as a small-time bureaucrat in particular,and  my observations on functioning of the big wheel called bureaucracy in general. I propose to talk about the game of football, the one having the highest following on this planet.

I must confess here I was not a footballer of any consequence. I did play football like any other boy in my childhood and pursued my passion all through my school-days. My dream to excel in the game was limitless. However it was not backed either by a natural skill or stamina or perseverance. So it met with its natural death, as I got entangled in my scholastic persuasions in college and later in university education.

But my love for the game never got diminished, even though I was physically away from the playing field as also living away from the football-crazy city of Calcutta. Before the advent of live coverage of sporting events in the electronic media, we had only shabbily-printed sports tabloids in Bengali and running commentaries broadcast by the A.I.R.to quench our thirst for more and more football. To be honest, the flavour of international football was beyond our reach, at least for the vast majority of the people. Owing to withdrawal of many teams, the 1956 Olympics saw only 11 teams to compete. However that could no way undermine the achievements of the Indian team as they reached the semi-final stage for the first time and Neville D’Souza became the first Asian to score a hat-trick in the Olympics. Back home we enjoyed the moments of glory, but the football heroes remained largely unsung, partly due to the limited reach and circulation of the of the print media and partly for the non-existence of favourable political and economic environment  of the country.

The rapid expansion of T.V. network in the country aided by entry of the big shots in commercial telecast arena became a game-changer in the world of games and sports in India. Cricket, considered earlier to be a game reserved for enjoyment by the rich and the educated middle-class (mostly city-based) was the first choice for the T.V. business strategists. It did not take much time for the print media to follow their footsteps.  Besides, the leisurely pace of that game in tandem with brief intervals available between actions offered great scope to the T.V. advertisers resulting in generation of huge revenue for the TV channel owners. The number of cricket-playing countries is very small in number compared to the number of affiliated nations within FIFA, the apex international governing body for football. Additionally, for not being a body-contact game, it suited the generally light-built Indians.

It was comparatively easier for us to be the “world-beaters” in cricket in no time. To many us, the cricket has become a “religion”. By contrast, our interest in domestic football has suffered a downward trend, as the standard of international football often seen live on T.V. would create fan base of many European and Latin American footballers and clubs. It indirectly contributed to the withering of public interest in domestic football. Consequently it is taking its toll in the form of shrinking commercial sponsorship of large business houses for it. We lament that the country that won Asiad Gold Medals twice could not qualify to play in the Olympics since 1960.The downward slide in FIFA world ranking has been continuing for last two decades. The surge in popularity of cricket in India is largely indebted to the success of the national team in international events.Similarly the natural affinity of the Indians at large towards football will register a glorious come-back only if our national football team could show its mettle in international meets. We do not lack talent. In these days of scientific advancement in all fields, including bio-metrics and sports medicine, it should not be impossible to overcome the  limitations arising out of general physical constitution of the average  Indian. It appears all the more real in the background of availability of the largest pool of young men, India having the highest percentage of teenagers in its total population of over 120 crore. It is certainly not too much to aspire for in decades to come that Indian team will qualify to play in the Olympics as well as in the World Cup .

Diverting a little from the discussions on India-specific issues, I may share with my readers  an issue  regarding the evaluation process of the players by the FIFA. In my opinion it involves  the soul and fibre of the game.

A football team is made up of eleven players with opponents having the same number of players. Scoring a goal is the ultimate aim of each team. At the same time, stopping the opponents from netting a goal is equally important, as the margin between goals scored and conceded will decide the ultimate winners. But just ask an average football fan to name the greatest footballer of the decade or of all-time. The choice will revolve around 2/3 players with different nationalities. One thing is common for them . All of them played or play in forward position, i.e., they excelled/ excel  beyond comparison in scoring goals. After all the goal-scoring ability can be quantified. Further, it is often found in traditional form of match-reporting how many goals a goal-keeper has saved. The players manning the defence line are not forgotten altogether. But they hardly ever find themselves in the ultimate choice of the general fans for the all-time greats, with a very few glorious exceptions. Let us see now whether the records corroborate such a view.

Lionel Messi, a striker, appears to have a monopoly over the FIFA Ballon d'Or(the best player of the Year) for the last three years since 2010. Going further back, between 1990 and 2009,  spanning a period of 19 years, only two players (Lothar Mathaus and Fabio Cannavera ) ,who played as a defenders, could bag the the FIFA World Player of the Year in 1991 and 2006 respectively. The rest of the 17 remaining recipients of the same honour were/are either strikers or  attacking midfielders with commendable goal-scoring records.

This is probably not all that fair. Football is a team game. The credit for success  of the team should be evenly distributed among all the departments of a team. Besides, the game becomes all the more interesting  when equal stress is given to all the departments. The FIFA may look into this aspect of this evaluation process, and innovate ways and means to put the balance of recognition of individual skill of the players on an even keel. Otherwise the player fighting in the defence line will be relegated to the status of mere support tools for the "forwards"(presently called as "Striker" including "attacking midfielders").

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