Every weekend
we are glued to our television sets to watch our favorite European football teams
battle it out. Those who are unable to watch it live are hooked to their smart
phones, while traveling, studying or even on their date, refreshing the app that
provides live score updates. We are even concerned with the world cup
qualifiers or the friendly matches of European and South American nations, and
their victory gives us a sense of pride and self-satisfaction.
FIFA world
cup is held every four years and any Tom, Dick and Harry becomes a football pundit.
News channels have their panels with experts commenting on Ronaldo, Messi etc.
and they debate as to why Indian football team never qualifies for the world
cup.
While every
Indian wants to see India play in world cup, no one really bothers to support
or cheer the team. The same news channels turn a blind eye towards Indian
football and their world cup campaign.
India starts
their world cup campaign today, 12/03/2015, at 7pm against Nepal. The stage is set.
11 Players , A Billion Heartbeats
None of the
major sports channels are telecasting it. DD sports backed out to show live
telecast as they had prior commitments. Only DD North East will be telecasting
it. No mention about the match in leading news channels. Nothing on social
media except handful of Facebook like pages(Indian Football Team , Indian National Football Team ) .
ISL created
the hype and it set the standards. But the Indian players and the national team
still lack the support it deserves.
Self-proclaimed
football fan in India is unaware that Romeo Fernandes became the first Indian
to be signed by a Brazilian club Atlético Paranaense or Gurpreet Singh Sandhu created
history by becoming first Indian since 1936 to play for top division European
club, Norwegian Tippeligaen club Stabaek FC.
A small
petition on twitter did wonders this week, Star sports agreed to telecast the
AFC cup matches, and East Bengal repaid the faith with some quality football. We need
to get behind our national team the same way we follow England, Spain, Brazil …
“It’s time for the Sleeping giant to wake up. Being the biggest democracy of the World doesn’t mean anything. Fight on the pitch if you want to win.” - Stephen Constantine, Indian Coach
Image credits: Indian Football Team
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