The Face of Desperation

When Ranbir Kapoor was announced to be the face of FIFA in India it gave me a mixed feeling of joy and sadness. Joy because Indian football needed a voice or may be a face,sadness because it just shows that still football is considered unpopular in India despite recent steps taken in the forward direction. Ranbirs venture hasn’t been thrown in the page 3 limelight yet as none of the glamour papers have showed any consideration to the rising stars’s endorsement of FIFA. Endorsement yes,as our nation tries all its might to ‘promote’ the most popular game in the planet. Football needs no introduction or promotion to some of us, who have been following football passionately over the times but yes for millions who have cricket filled in their souls, they need to be stirred, Also they need to remind themselves of other sports in the nation.. A Bollywood star roped in might just be the final card that The AIFF and FIFA play to get football as popular as cricket. Don’t get me wrong football is popular in Goa,Bengal,Kerala etc. Also the urbane youth are aware of the Premiership. But sadly they know a Ronaldo, or Rooney or Lampard but when asked about our national team players they laugh and and use the same profane sentence- the Indian football team?Do we have one? Indian football is not popular enough in the nation to say the least.beacuse when it comes to cheering the national team it always has been cricket. And it looks like it always will be because of the initiation of the IPL. Goal.com spoke to Mr.Lalit Modi and he mentioned about a concept similar to the IPL for football. But the AIFF was just about to launch the I-league- the new improved league replacing the NFL. Zee sports bought the broadcasting rights, but due to unavailability of the channel in many regions,the marketing of the I-league got a mixed response. When I happened to chat with Mr.Bobili Vijay Kumar,national editor of sport,Times He had mentioned this unique idea of the I-league was bestowed upon the AIFF long back by Espn-Star. In fact they even showed some of the games if you remember. Their only condition was that the account handling should be transparent,but some senior officials declined the offer. And immediately espn pulled out the plug from the deal. This incident surely shows us the money laden nexus happening behind our backs.During that time the growth of football in India was stagnant and it continued for a long time. Any which ways after a matter of years after this incident atleast we got to see the games of theI-league and the national team on our TV sets without any hassle. It may be noted that with the rise of popularity of the Premiership among the kids,is when our officials realized that Indian football could be marketed as a commercial product after all. People have slowly started raising question marks over the lack of money being pumped in other sports. Sepp Blatter has visited India many times now always citing the enormous potential in our country. Facilities for players and coaches are improving and recently the AIFF has taken many right steps for ensuring the future of football in India. Im dreaming of the day when people go 40,000 seater stadia and watch their team play or when I can buy Mumbai Fc or Mohun Bagan merchandise without any trouble. Till then, Ranbir Kapoor is a knight in shining armor and using his popularity lets bring football some respect in the nation,respect which the game deserves. After that the glory days will surely return.