AFTER DAYS OF please and demands by Indian football fans, national team staff and AIFF officials, the Union Sports Ministry has finally changed its stance on India's participation in the football competition at the upcoming Asian Games.
According to reports, the Indian men's team (U-23 with 3 senior players, namely Sunil Chhetri, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and Sandesh Jhingan) will be sent to Hangzhou. The AIFF top brass, President Kalyan Chaubye (also Joint Secretary of IOA) and Secretary General Shaji Prabhakaran have been pursuing the issue with the government for the last few days, and their efforts seem to be finally bearing fruit. But there has been no word on the women's team.
This is despite the women's team having a much higher FIFA ranking than the men's team (60 as opposed to 99).
The Indian men's football team is one of the most popular sports teams in India after cricket. This year, they attracted sold out crowds at Imphal and Bengaluru, delivering great performances each time. The Blue Tigers are undefeated in 2023; and they have won a record 3 tournaments. And the 'Vande Mataram' chorus of 26,000 Indian football fans at Kanteerava Stadium has gone viral across the country. This may have been a reason, along with the importance of Asian Games in the preparation for FIFA World Cup Qualifiers and Asian Cup, that changed the government's mind on imposing the "medal prospect" standard on the team; which had caused them to deny its right to participate at Asian Games 2018.
However, the experience that can be gained from participating in the Asian Games is equally important for the women's team, if not more.
The women's team are also on a good run of form, beating Kyrgyzstan twice in the Olympic Qualifiers Round 1. Up next, they will face Japan, Vietnam and Uzbekistan in the second round. Both Japan and Vietnam are playing in the current FIFA Women's World Cup; but India have a fighting chance at finishing top two given their 2019 result against Vietname where they held them to a draw in their own backyard.
But while the big two in the group are getting to play the best teams in the world, the Indian women's team is not getting any match experience at all. They are being left under-prepared. For a long time they did not have a regular head coach, and the new one will not have enough quality game time going into these crucial matches.
Unlike men's football, Asian Games and Olympics are senior tournaments for women. So these games affect the official FIFA rankings. Not to mention how important they are for the team, given that they come once every 4 years.
The Vietnam team that was held by India has had a consistent head coach for 7 years, following a long term strategy to get them to the World Cup. The Indian women's team doesn't have anything like that in place. On top of that, Vietnam have never had to face any restrictions when it comes to playing in important tournaments like Asian Games although, unlike India, they have never won any medals in it. But the Indian team has beaurocratic barriers blocking its chances at making progress at every step of the way.
It's little wonder, then, that the Vietnam team which got just 1 point in Women's Asian Cup group stage (which India had got in their first game before being forced to pull out due to COVID-19), are now in the FIFA Women's World Cup and the Indian women are still wondering whether they will be allowed the basic right to play in the Asian Games which they have more than earned.
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July 24, 2023 at 12:01AM
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