NAME: SARANG KAMBLE.

STANDARD: XII
ROLL NO.:
SUBJECT: PHYSICAL EDUCATION.
NAME OF THE SCHOOL:
PETROCHEMICALS VIDYALAYA,
NAGOTHANE.
Football in India
Football (Association football) is one of India's most popular sports,
next to cricket. Traditionally it has enjoyed popularity in the states West
Bengal, Goa, Kerala and the entire North-East India,
especially Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Sikkim.

Having been Asian champions twice, the standard of Indian football has
degraded due to a lack of investment and proper planning. While
standards of other Asian nations in which football is the most popular
sport improved, Indian football was largely neglected in preference
to cricket in which the national team is among the top 10 countries in
the world. In September 2006, India and Brazil signed an agreement
formalizing a scheme to train Indian footballers and coaches.

Today India's top domestic league, the I-League, is one of the most

popular sports league in the India, and is home to some of India's most
famous football clubs.

The game in India is administered by the All India Football Federation

(AIFF), which is affiliated with the regional Asian Football
Confederation, as well as with the worldwide body FIFA. The Indian
national team has entered into the regional Asian Cup but has never
competed in any World Cup. The Indian women's national team has
also played in various competitions; moreover, women's football has its
own separate inter-state and state competitions. Youth football is
administered by the governmental Sports Authority of India.
History
The origin of football in India can be traced back to mid nineteenth
century when the game was introduced by British soldiers. Football
spread among the masses because of several football clubs
like Calcutta FC, Sovabazar, Mohun Bagan and Aryan Club were
established in Calcutta around 1890s. Calcutta, then capital of British
India, soon became the hub of Indian football.

Initially, games were played between army teams. Mohun Bagan

Athletic Club was set up in West Bengal in 1889. The club became
famous in 1911 when it became the first Indian team to lift the IFA
Shield, a tournament previously won only by British teams based in
India. It defeated the Eastern Yorkshire Regiment in the final of the
tournament in a victory that is still regarded by many as the greatest
win by an Indian team before Independence.

The Indian Football Association (IFA) was established in Calcutta in

1893, but did not have a single Indian on its board until the 1930s. India
qualified by default for the 1950 FIFA World Cup finals but the
governing body AIFF decided against going to the World Cup, being
unable to understand the importance of the event at that time. Reason
shown by AIFF was that there was the cost of travel; although FIFA
agreed to bear a major part of the travel expenses; lack of practice
time, team selection issues and valuing Olympics over FIFA World cup.

FIFA imposed a rule banning barefoot play following 1948

Olympics where India had played barefoot. The team has never since
come close to qualifying for the World Cup.

The Indian team also won gold medals in football at the 1951 and
1962 Asian Games, and finished fourth at the 1956 Olympics in
Melbourne. 1951–1962 is usually considered as "golden phase" of
Indian football. The National team won numerous titles in this era
under the coaching of Mr.  Syed Abdul Rahim.

India did qualify for its first Asian Cup in 1964 but failed to capture the
title. India's last important performance in an international tournament
was in 1970 Asian Games, when it won the bronze medal by defeating
Japan. In mid-70s, Indian youth team jointly won the Youth Asian Cup
with Iran. Indian football would go through a barren phase in 70s, 80s
and 90s, gradually losing its foothold as a top Asian team.

In August 2007, the Indian national team won the Nehru Cup for the
first time in its history beating Syria . In August the following year,
India defeated Tajikistan to lift the AFC Challenge Cup and in turn
qualified for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar. In August 2009, India
again won the Nehru Cup beating Syria in penalty.

In January 2011 India played in the 2011 Asian Cup which was the first
time India has played in the Asian Cup for 24 years. India was knocked
out in the group stage which contained the countries South
Korea, Australia, and Bahrain.

Ever since the 2011 Asian Cup the All India Football Federation has

been working very hard on Indian Football. For instance they allowed
former coach Bob Houghton coach the Indian side in the 2012 AFC
Challenge Cup qualifiers. After going first in there AFC Challenge
Cup group Bob Houghton was sacked and replaced by the current
Indian coach Wim Koevermans. Meanwhile the Indian national under-
23 football team won the first round of the 2012 Olympics qualifiers
against Myanmar but were knocked out by Qatar. India played their
next official matches against United Arab Emirates in the 2014 FIFA
World Cup qualifiers which India lost on aggregate 5–2.
League system
The National Football League, established in 1996 by the All India
Football Federation was the first semi-professional football league in
India. Since its founding, however, many other leagues have been
founded in India. In a study made by FIFA in 2006 there are around
6,540 clubs registered with the AIFF.

I-League

The I-League was founded in 2006 after India's former top league the
National Football League disbanded in a successful effort aimed at
increasing the game in India. Links with clubs that were not in the I-
League were maintained, and each season the bottom two clubs are
relegated from the I-League and replaced by two from the I-League 2nd
Division. The I-League is contested between 14 clubs each season.

I-League 2nd Division

The I-League 2nd Division ranks second in the hierarchy of Indian

football since the disbanding of India's top league in 2005. The I-League
2nd Division has 21 member clubs evenly divided among three divisions.
Promotion and relegation of clubs still takes place between the I-league
and the I-League 2nd Division.

State League football

State league football is considered the best amateur leagues in India.

Each state has their own league in India. There is no
promotion/relegation between the state leagues and the I-League 2nd
Division but there could be promotion/relegation between leagues
within the state. For example, the Calcutta Football League has three
divisions with promotion/relegation but the winner of the Calcutta
Football League will not get promoted to the I-League 2nd Division.
Youth leagues

Right now the official youth league in India is the I-League U19 which

was won by JCT FC in 2011. The format for the 2012 I-League U19 has
not yet been announced.

Cup competitions
Federation Cup: The Federation Cup (abbreviated as Fed cup) is an
annual knockout style club football tournament in India. It has started
in 1977. It was the most prestigious national level club football
tournament in India till 1997. Presently it is the most important club
tournament after I-league. Winning club of Federation cup gets a
chance to compete in the continental level in AFC Cup along with I-
league champion team.

Durand Cup: The Durand Football Tournament was started by then,

India's Foreign Secretary, Mortimer Durand at Simla, India, in 1888, It
was basically initiated, as a recreation for British troops stationed in
India. The Durand Cup was twice suspended, during the two world
wars. In 1940 the venue was shifted to New Delhi from Dagshai.

Indian Super Cup: The Indian Super Cup is an annual Indian club
association football match contested between the I-League champions
and the Federation Cup winners.

National teams
The India national football team is the national football team
of India and is governed by the All India Football Federation. It is a
member of the Asian Football Confederation. Since 1948, the AIFF has
been affiliated with FIFA, the international governing body for football.
In 1954, AIFF became one of the founder members of the Asian Football
Confederation (AFC). At the peak of its success during the 1950s and
60s, the team was automatically advanced to play in the 1950 FIFA
World Cup (all the other Asian teams withdrew), but they did not go to
the tournament in Brazil due to the cost of travel, lack of practice time,
team selection issues, their refusal to not play barefoot and valuing
Olympics over FIFA World cup. They won gold medals at two Asian
Games, and held the record for the best performance by an Asian
football team at the Olympics.

There are also a number of other national teams from the Under-23

team to the Under-15 team, the under-23's is considered to be a feeder
team for the national team.

The standard of Indian football (compared globally) is poor. According

to FIFA rankings, the national team is ranked 165th place in the world
as of April 2011, and is said to struggle to qualify for both the World
Cup and the Asian Cup. Part of this has been put down to the lack of
opportunities for proper training and development of players in the
country.

Women's football
Women's football has not had the relative head start over the rest of
the world that the men's game has had, and also has not had the
chance to spread through the country like its male counterpart. The
game was administerd by the Women's Football Federation of India
(WFFI) from 1975 until the early 1990s when they were absorbed into
the AIFF. However, there are complaints that women's football is
treated as a poor relation to the men's game.

The women's game, like the men's game, also has its early pioneers in
the state of West Bengal.

Some female players have become internationally recognised. Among

them are Chitra Gangadharan, who was selected to play for the All
Asian Star team, Jaanki Kotecha, who was selected as captain to the All
Asian Star Team in 2008–2009, where she led her team to victory. In
February 2000, Sujata Kar and Alpana Sil became the first Indian
footballers to sign a contract outside India. They signed with the
German team TSV Crailsheim, but had to return after a month due to
problems with the clearance of their international transfer.

The poor support of the national team by the AIFF became evident,
when the team's trip to Germany was only made possible by Non
Resident Indians in the country, and by the support of the German
Football Association. The women's game reached a new low in June
2009 when FIFA delisted the side from its world rankings for being out
of action for more than 18 months. The recently concluded Mumbai
Women's Football League 2009–10 organised by the MDFA (Mumbai
District Football Association) was a major success and featured many
talented players who had played for the national team. Furthermore
the popularity of the event gave hope that the women's game could rise
in India.

Stadiums in India
There are many football stadiums in India, however only a few of these
stadiums are of World Standards. These are namely, Jawaharlal Nehru
Stadium in New Delhi with a capacity of over 60,000 and
the Ambedkar Stadium with a capacity of 20,000 but is known to have
had crowds of 35,000 in the 2009 Nehru Cup. The main stadium in West
Bengal, we have the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata with a capacity of
120,000. In Sikkim, the Paljor Stadium in Gangtok which seats over
25,000 is famous as one of the most beautiful stadiums in the world as
it is situated in the backdrop of Himalayas. In Shillong the main
stadium is the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium with a capacity of 25,000
standing. Both the Paljor and the JLN in Shillong have been renovated
and now have artificial playing surfaces. Some other stadiums
important stadiums are the Balewadi Stadium in Pune, the Fatorda
Stadium in Goa, the Kaloor International Stadium in Kochi,
the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Guwahati. Apart from the above
mentioned stadiums, there are hundreds of more stadiums in the
country.

However, with India likely to host the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup there
is definitely going to be massive renovation of said stadiums around the
country.

-Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata-