India, like China, has been pursuing a football dream in recent years.(Xinhua)
BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- India's film Dangal has been gaining traction in the Chinese box office as of late, and it has come as a suprise to many Chinese poeople that, in a country known primarily for cricket, other sports such as wrestling also have considerable fan bases. The two most populous countries in the world have something important in common when it comes to mass sports. India, like China, has been pursuing a football dream in recent years.
Both of the countries have a weak foundation in the sport and have suffered lackluster performance, but each also has a strong potential market for the sport, backed up by governmental support and long-term planning. Both countries, to put it succinctly, have ambitious plans to up their football game.
Chinese football has attracted huge attention with a big-spending league, but India is not a country usually associated with football headlines. However, Indian football is also making breakthroughs.
May 19, 2017 was a historic day for Indian football as the India U-17 football team registered an emphatic win over Italy in a friendly match at Arezzo. Currently, India is busy preparing for the FIFA U-17 World Cup, to be held in the country in October. Indian people see the chance to host the U-17 World Cup as an opportunity to revolutionize football in the country.
Also this month, the Indian national football team gained its best FIFA ranking of the last 21 years, jumping one spot to 100th. India has twice previously stormed atop one hundred on the world ladder. They reached 99 in the world ranking's inaugural year in 1993, before achieving an all-time high of 94 in February 1996. But the next two decades saw India in a downward spiral, slipping all the way to their lowest ebb of 173 in March 2015.
On the sidelines of the 2017 World Football Forum held last week in Changsha, China, Subrata Dutta, senior vice president of the All India Football Federation, said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua that India needs this year's U-17 World Cup to be a success, adding that it would go a long way toward revolutionizing the way football is played in the country.
This edition of the U-17 World Cup will see Indian football touch 15,000 schools and reach out to 11 million students and youth across the country. "Gradually, there will be more young people preferring to play football than cricket," said Dutta.
He pointed out that India created a ten-year football development plan in 2014 with the help of FIFA, focusing on grassroots level organization, coaching education and league development. This plan has several similarities with China's "Medium and Long Term Plan of Chinese Football Development," covering 2016-2050. By 2020, China will have 20,000 football academies, 30 million elementary and middle school students playing the sport, and more than 50 million Chinese active in the game, according to the plan.
Chinese businessman Xia Jiantong, the owner of the English football team Aston Villa, said his club is helping India open youth football academies and compile football textbooks for some ten thousand Indian schools.
"Due to historical reasons, it' s easy for Indian football to be integrated into the English youth training system, but India' s football infrastructure is far behind that of China," said Xia, who also attended the 2017 World Football Forum.
Dutta admitted that India has a lack of football stadiums and other relevant infrastructure. Five or six years before, he said, many Indian clubs have had to share one stadium. But he hopes that now, with the arrival of the U-17 World Cup, more and more world-class stadiums will be built in India.
Four years ago, the Indian Super League was founded in an effort to make football a top sport in India and to increase the level of Indian football worldwide. Former international stars such as David Trezeguet, Robert Pires, Alessandro Del Piero have come to play in the ISL.
With this celebrity power providing wind for its sails, the ISL quickly became one of the most popular professional sports leagues in the world, with an average attendance of 26,376 for matches in the 2015 season.
But the ISL, made up of eight teams, is not a part of any larger Indian football pyramid. It only serves as one of the top tournaments in the country, along with the official domestic I-League.
The I-League is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 10 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the I-League 2nd Division.
For quite some time, the I-League has been overshadowed by the glitz and glamour of the ISL. The ISL is a much more franchise-based tournament where several internationals who are past their prime gobble up the spotlight.
The All India Football Federation previously proposed a possible merger between the I-League and the ISL, but the question of creating a "unified" national league is still not decided.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Super League (CSL) clubs spent a record-breaking 390 million euros before this season's transfer window, according to an estimate by Transfermarket, which means the CSL surpassed the English Premier League to become the world's highest-spending football league for two consecutive years.
As opposed to India, foreign players making the move to China are often world-class talent in the prime of their careers. Accordingly, the CSL's influence continues to grow quickly both domestically and internationally. This season, the CSL is broadcast in 96 countries and regions including Britain, Brazil, France and Belgium, 25 more markets than last year.
Dutta says that compared with the CSL, football clubs in India lag far behind in terms of investment. "The CSL is mentioned around the world in the past few years with its huge level of investment. I don't think Indian clubs can afford this sort of spending. The commercialization of Chinese football is much easier than in India as more Indian companies prefer to support cricket teams. I think China can provide an example to India (in terms of developing football). I believe that with the arrival of the U-17 World Cup, more and more Indian companies will choose to support football in the future."
