Indian Football: Is Anyone Listening to Zico?

Vivek Menezes
The buzz is undeniably back in Indian football after decades of doldrums. The slickly-packaged Indian Super League (ISL) has engineered lots of glitz and glamour, prominent television coverage and big-bucks sponsorship that has fans pouring into stadiums across the country, with record television ratings to match.
Anyone who attends FC Goa matches at Fatorda can attest to the achievement: delighted, high-energy crowds, upgraded field and facilities, an unusual level of play.It is all good for fans and the league’s celebrity promoters too. But is the ISL good for Indian football?
The answer to that thorny question will be revealed when the national team is reconfigured to attempt a rise in global rankings. It certainly can’t get much worse - India’s football team is ranked an abysmal 159th in the world, bottoming out at 30th even just in Asia. Even by the sorry, sordid standards of mismanagement and constant losing that characterize Indian performances in almost every world sport (cricket does not qualify) nothing compares to the incredible decline of Indian football. Every year it gets worse.
This is particularly inexplicable because football has deep roots, and retains widespread popularity across the subcontinent. The Durand Cup is the third-oldest football trophy in the world. It was well-established in India long before football spread through Europe and Latin America. Several Calcutta clubs - like Mohun Bagan - predate FIFA itself.
Indian football history is surprisingly full of triumphs. In 1911, Bagan’s barefooted Bengalis defeated the British Army’s East Yorkshire Regiment, firing two goals in the last five minutes to win the Indian Football Association Shield. That real-life Lagaan moment played out in front of 60,000 delirious fans. The newspapers exulted, “Mohun Bagan is not a football team. It is an oppressed country rolling in the dust, which has just started to raise its head.”
Right into the 1960’s, Indian footballers were among the best outside the West. They routinely beat teams which have become fixtures at the World Cup – India beat Iran to win the Asian Games in 1951, and deftly disposed of Japan and Korea to repeat in 1962. At the Melbourne Olympics in1956, India shocked the hosts 4-2, as Goa’s own Neville D’Souza fired the first hat-trick by an Asian in Olympic history (the team finished fourth). The Aussies demanded an unofficial rematch, and went down in flames again, D’Souza unstoppable, firing two more.
Hope of rising to that level again – of qualifying for the Olympics and even the World Cup – ostensibly animates the ISL. But while the new league possesses lots of glitz, its current formula – and uneasy relationship with the existing professional league structure of the I-League – does give cause to worry. Bollywood yes, but what next?
In this regard, the blunt, incisive comments of FC Goa coach Zico impart a great deal of insight. The Brazilian was previously part of an ISL-type experiment, the remarkable success-story of Japanese football. He was there from the very beginning of the J-League as a player, and from 2002 the coach of Japan’s national team, which he led to the World Cup twice.
Zico disagrees with the ISL rule that only 5 players on-field for each team need to be Indians, “I think playing too many foreigners in the ISL is not good as it will not help much in the development of Indian football. It will not give more exposure to Indian players to play alongside the foreigners" adding “I think the difference with Japan was that they did not bring in more foreign players which helped them to develop their talent.”
Zico also says, “when I was in Japan, the best players were playing in one league. Hence, it was easier to pick the best player. However, in India, with the existence of two leagues, the task becomes more difficult. Some of the best Indian players are not playing in the ISL.”
All those comments have met with total silence from the organizers and promoters of the ISL. But they ignore Zico’s plain-speaking wisdom to the peril of Indian football, and the verdict of the fans, and public opinion as a whole, will be swift and unforgiving if his prescient warnings are ignored.
Meanwhile the Brazilian’s team is headed into its most crucial matches after a generally disappointing season. FC Goa plays attractive, attacking football, with more shots on goal and corner kicks earned than any other team in the league. But very few of those threatening balls have found the back of the net. The next couple of games will settle the team’s hopes for the inaugural ISL title, and probably Zico’s future in India as well. The all-time great came, he saw everything, and he speaks the truth. Lets hope the right people are listening.