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DEAR REDIFF

AIFF scores an own goal

Time was when India was among the leading lights in Asian football, as the victories in the 1951 and 1962 Asian Games and the third place in the same quadrennial event in 1970 would indicate.

Since then, it was been an unarrested slide. Indeed, the last time India took part in this continental version of the Olympic Games was at Seoul in 1986, and the team's performances there only confirmed the decline. For both the Beijing Asiad in 1990 and the Hiroshima Asiad in 1994, the national government firmly vetoed the team's participation, on the ground that the standard was not good enough.

Since then the government, or more accurately the Federal sports ministry, has been probing the claims of various national sports federations and also evaluating the chances that sportspersons and teams of various disciplines have of enhancing the country's image in the international arena. It has identified disciplines in which, it believes, our sportspersons and teams can live up to the expectations of the country.

And football does not figure in the list - which means in turn that there is little chance of the team being cleared for participation in next year's Asian Games.

The All India Football Federation brass, though, would not like to be left out of the Bangkok jaunt, so they have apparently persuaded the ministry that the recent South Asian Football Federation Cup would be the yardstick to measure the team's capabilities and chances in the Asian Games.

Well, the tournament is over, and India has won. And the AIFF has been working overtime, ever since, to squeeze the last drop of advantage from the win in Kathmandu last Sunday (September 14), and through this means, force the sports ministry to relent and sanction Indian participation at Bangkok.

The Calcutta-based AIFF president Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, and vice-president Ashok Ghosh, have used the media as a tool towards this end - but while being eloquence personified on the subject of the "glorious win", they have distanced themselves from some vital, revealing facts.

Among the 40 countries affiliated to the Asian Football Confederation - and who are, therefore, entitled to take part in the Asian Games - India is 20th in the rankings for August issued by the world body, FIFA, and sponsors Coca Cola. Above India are ranked the winners of the last six editions of the Asian Games football tournament -- Iran (1974, 1982 and 1990), South Korea (1978, jointly with North Korea, and 1986) and Uzbekistan (1994).

The top Asian team is Japan, the winners of the Asia Cup in 1992, followed by such strong sides as South Korea, Saudi Arabia, current Asian Cup holders Kuwait, China (whose under-19 team defeated the full India side for third place in the five-team Eider Nehru International at Kochi in April), Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Iraq, Qatar, Oman, Uzbekistan, Malaysia, Syria, Indonesia, Singapore, Bahrain, Vietnam and Tajikistan. All of them have a better record in the last decade, and so could be expected to get the better of India.

Of course, some of the teams ranked above India may not take part, and an upset over a higher ranked team cannot be discounted. But the latter fate can befall India too, and one of the lower ranked teams, like North Korea (the first Asian team to win the Nehru Gold Cup International) can cause an upset.

But the chances are almost all the leading sides will compete in the Asian Games, and as only 16 teams will be in the final round, it is unlikely India would have any easy progress into that elite list. Maybe India could shock one of these teams, but to expect the side to reach the semi-finals and maybe win a medal would be flying in the face of solid reason.

And these are the realities that the AIFF bigwigs are not revealing, as it goes against their intention of having the side included for the Asian Games contingent and, therefore, get a chance to go to Bangkok themselves.

It is significant that Dasmunshi and Ghosh, who have travelled widely in India and abroad as football officials, have not come out with any innovative and imaginative measures to raise the stock of the Indian team. In most things, they have bungled - like the entries for the biennial Nehru International, release of players from the camp and inclusion of players in the final team on the international front, scheduling of tournaments, eligibility of a team for AIFF club events like the Kalyani Black Label Federation Cup and the Scissors Cup, and conduct of other domestic events.

If on one of their jaunts abroad they had observed, or attempted to discover, how other countries deal with such issues and problems, the football community in India are yet to know of and benefit from their endeavours.

It would be far better for them to admit that Indian football is in the doldrums, and that much hard, patient work is needed for its upliftment. An AFC official at the SAFF Cup in Kathmandu, in which India beat the Maldives, Bangladesh and Pakistan to emerge on top, pointed out that India does precious little for the development of the game in the other SAF countries. India does not invite any of them for its Nehru International, opting to invite teams from Europe, South America and Africa besides one two of the higher ranked Asian teams.

True, the AIFF may not invite the SAF teams for the Nehru International, but surely it can work out a programme of bilateral tours whereby the players on the international fringe can get much needed exposure?

Also, instead of seeking entry to events in which we risk a blow to our esteem and confidence, the AIFF could explore possibilities of fairly regular tours and visits to Asian countries ranked above India. That would be a better way of raising the quality of our football - and through it, our prestige.