Home
The FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar is coming to a close with France and Argentina playing in the ultimate battle of the biggest football tournament. This mega event will be remembered for many upsets, and a lot of those memories will be tied to some of the underdog teams from Asia, three of whom even made it to the Round of 16 — Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.
Ahead of the match to decide the next world champions, Nikhil Naz, consulting editor of India Today, caught up with the president of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), Kalyan Chaubey, who was confident about the future of the sport in the country. While he did not get into the details, Chaubey spoke about the roadmap for Indian football, especially given the success of the Asian teams at the World Cup.
"India has a lot of potential to participate in the FIFA World Cup. We need to work hard, with a long-term plan. I am sure that when Asian countries like Japan, South Korea, Saudi (Arabia) and Iran have done extremely well at the World Cup. This has also improved India's confidence level, because if other Asian countries can do so well, so can India. I believe India has that potential. We are working on a roadmap to decide what needs to be done so that India can play at the World Cup," Chaubey said.
See the full interview here:
Recent statistics have shown that Indian football fans have taken advantage of the World Cup being held in an Asian country, flooding the host nation of Qatar with the second-most number of fans at the mega event. But the recently-elected AIFF president is not surprised at such an attendance, given the popularity of domestic football in the country.
"Indians have been into football for nearly three decades. We know how football is popular back in India. If you play in the Santosh Trophy championship, in the matches between Kerala, Maharashtra, Goa, Bengal, you see a lot of crowds. It is sad that football as an Indian team is not represented overseas, but football at a domestic level is very popular," he added.
This fandom has not translated into success at the international level, but Chaubey assures fans that playing in the World Cup is not an 'impossible task to think about'.
"That is the reason that we have to work hard and find ways to take advantage of sports science, infrastructure development, modern football training, and also the fitness planning. Thereafter, I think the national team can represent India at the FIFA World Cup. It should not be an impossible task to think about," said the former goalkeeper.
