"Earth Derby" 1-5 defeat in Indian football: 1.4 billion people can't find 11 to play?
In the Asian Games men's group stage, India lost 1-5 to the Chinese men's football team, losing this "Earth derby". Chinese fans often laugh at themselves: 1.4 billion people can't find 11 to play, why not?
The world ranking is lower than the national football team
As the two most populous countries in the world, China's "national ball" is table tennis, India's "national ball" is cricket, and in terms of "the world's first sport" football, fans of the two countries can really "empathize", Chinese fans can even be proud, after all, we have participated in the World Cup!
In fact, India also qualified for the World Cup, but in 1950 they voluntarily withdrew, the official reason is that the cost of travel is too high, as for the real reason, some say that FIFA banned Indian players from playing barefoot, and some said that India disdained the World Cup that was born soon and paid more attention to the Olympics.
The fifties and sixties were indeed the golden age of Indian football: winning gold medals at the Asian Games in 1951 and 1962, reaching the final of the 1964 Asian Cup, and reaching the semi-finals of the Olympic men's football team in 1956.
And now, their world ranking is only 99th, and the national football team is 80th; The highest ranked was 96th, and the lowest fell to 173rd! The most brilliant achievement is winning the South Asian Football Championship nine times.
In August last year, the Indian Football Association was also banned by FIFA worldwide! This is because India's Supreme Court dissolved the Indian Football Association in May and appointed a three-member committee to govern the national football movement, contrary to FIFA's principle that members should not be subject to legal and political interference.
Indian football on the rise
However, compared with the regressing Chinese football, Indian football is still in the process of progress. So far in 2023, they have a good record of 9 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats, including defeating Lebanon to win the Indian Heroes Cup and defeating Kuwait to defend the South Asian Championship; The only two defeats, one was a penalty loss to Iraq in the semi-finals of the King Thai Cup, and a narrow 0-1 defeat to Lebanon in the third or fourth place final.
In this year's Asian Cup qualifiers, India won all three games against Hong Kong, Afghanistan and Cambodia, scoring eight goals and conceding only one, and the first place in the group went straight to the finals.
In the recently concluded U23 Asian Cup qualifiers, the Indian Olympic Games met the Chinese Olympic Games, and they were also killed at the last moment.
All this stems from the importance attached to football in India. After the World Cup final in Qatar last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his desire to host the World Cup in the future. Indian business giants, key players in the Indian Premier League, and Reliance Industries, known as the "rich country", are also actively promoting the development of football.
The well-known enterprise has established a "satellite center" in Mizoram, in northeastern India, near the Myanmar border, with excellent infrastructure and youth academy. They also hope to foster interest and love for football in the wider region, making football the number one sport in the region and unearthing talented young people.
Chinese Super League, the past of the Indian Super League
At the same time, Reliance Group is also the manager of the Indian Premier League. The Indian Premier League was established in 2013 by media tycoon Murdoch and Reliance Group boss and India's richest man, Ambani, when it was stipulated that eight teams must bring in foreign coaches and must have big stars - privileged foreign aid.
As a result, the Indian Super League at that time, like the Chinese Super League and the current Saudi United, attracted many world-class stars, including: Piero, Nesta, Materazzi, Robert Carlos, Trezege, Malouda, Anelka, Pire, Ljungberg, Berbatov, Robbie Keane, David James, Penant, Wes Brown, Rees, Mutu, Capudevilla, and so on.
However, the bursting of the Chinese Super League gold dollar bubble has given Indians an important reminder. Reliance executives believe that Chinese football has grown too fast with money and then fallen into chaos, and that Indian football should choose a more sustainable path.
Ten years have passed, and today's Indian Super League has no big-name stars, and at the same time, it has reduced its dependence on foreign aid, with a maximum of 6 players per team and a maximum of 4 people playing at the same time. In 2019, the AFC officially listed the Indian Premier League as India's top league, and the Indian Premier League champion qualified for the AFC Champions League.
In short, Indian football still lags behind Chinese football, but they are constantly catching up. Recently, there is a question: which will come sooner if the national football team enters the World Cup again or Japan wins the World Cup? Now, the second half of it can be replaced with "India's first World Cup".