Zero Matches, Zero Development: How Lack of Games Is Killing Indian Football

What if your child trained hard for years… but only played 8 matches a year?

 

I have always been a big anime fan. I have watched anime like Demon Slayer, Black Clover, Naruto, One Piece, etc. But there was one anime which is very close to me. It is not as big as the above anime, but I love it because it is the story of a boy who lives in the remotest of areas, how he is scouted from his school match, and is brought to Esperion, who are playing in the J1 league.

 

The story is more or less about the academy journey of a child who joined through trials—his journey from the C team to the B team to the A team, and then finally achieving his dream to become a professional footballer. I can keep describing the technicalities of this anime, but there is one thing I wanted to bring in here: throughout his journey, the C, B, and A teams keep playing football matches in a league every week. This is something a Japanese, English, German, French, or Portuguese football fan wouldn't even take into consideration.

But as an Indian football fan, I cannot simply see it and pretend to unsee it.

People who follow football as die-hard enthusiasts always love to go deep, research, analyze, and follow updates. If you asked them why Indian football players are of such poor quality, they would know what I am talking about here. 

We do have a great grassroots pool which we do not access, we do have some academies, and we do have some selected, good-quality youth coaches. 

But assuming that all of them were fixed and our football would suddenly flourish would be like having fake hopes for something which will never happen.

One issue which is deeply connected to coaches and grassroots is matches. If you have a great grassroots pool with millions of talents, and you also have a good quality and quantity of coaches, but you do not have enough football matches at every age group? Naah, that's not going to work out!

"Football is just a ball without a football match."

As a student who is preparing for the NEET exams, imagine you have bought a course and you are just learning concepts by watching videos one by one. Within days you have completed the whole syllabus, and then you sit and do nothing for the next six months other than re-watching those videos. You don't practice questions, question banks, PYQs, etc.

Do you think you will be able to clear NEET?

I can assure you with confidence that out of 720 marks in total, you will not score more than 140 marks because it also has negative marking.

This is exactly what happens in Indian football across all age groups, from age 8 up to the domestic league.

A kid who has access to a top-quality coach learns a lot from him, practices, and trains hard. But when it comes to playing a real 3v3, 5v5, 7v7, 9v9, or 11v11—depending on their age group—they have played just 8-10 matches in the whole year. Adding to that, these 8-10 matches are stuffed tightly into a single month, after which the kid does nothing but sit at home and play zero matches.

A young child in a Brazilian favela practices football for a total of around 22 hours per week between school, clubs, and unorganized activity.

That is more than 3 hours per day, 7 days a week.

Compare that to an average 7-year-old kid from Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, or Bihar who plays for an academy. He already has just 7-8 matches in the whole year. On top of that, if he wants to play some unstructured football with his friends, he couldn't even do that because there are no pitches, or even a basic muddy piece of land where they could play a small 3v3 or 5v5.

So an average kid is playing 0 hours per day, 7 days a week if you exclude those 7-8 matches.

There is no way this kid, who has rarely played any matches to develop himself, can suddenly become Messi at age 18 when he is playing for an ISL club in the top-tier league of Indian football. 

A Brazilian player is not just meters ahead of an Indian footballer; they are miles ahead.

A Brazilian has had hundreds of thousands of touches with the ball. He would have tried a dribbling skill thousands of times playing unstructured football, as well as playing for his local club team at the age of 7. He would have run a simulation of how to move with the ball, how to control it, and then perform a sombrero millions of times in his head.

Trial and error is what a kid needs to do to improve his game. And that is what football is all about. If you do not give a volume of matches to a player, then by the time he is 14, he has already lost the race to get into a top European club.

The Fix Isn't As Hard As We Think

Infrastructure is still an issue that requires capital investment from private entities, the government, etc. But we need to make sure that each and every kid, starting from age 3, gets to play football. Whether it is 1v1, 3v3, 5v5, 7v7, 9v9, or 11v11. Whether it is structured or unstructured football, like cage football in England.

For this to be executed, we need to make sure that starting at age 6, we are giving players at least 25-45 matches in a year, depending on the age group they are in. And when they are not playing a match, they should be pushed to play futsal, which has a significantly smaller pitch size and can be played with just 5 players a side. With the help of clubs, private entities, academies, the state government, and the central government, we should build thousands of pitches and futsal courts across India so a kid can get to play football with his friends.

And this problem doesn't just exist at the youth level; it also exists in critical age groups like 12-16 and 17-20, where players are only playing 8-20 matches depending on their qualification to later tournament stages. We need to make sure that we create leagues for these specific groups at all ages and play them in a full-season format where they are continuously playing matches for the whole year—playing at least two matches against a single team.

If we have 30-40 matches per year, that will finally help us resolve the volume-of-matches issue.

Clubs should be incentivized to play in youth leagues so we get more participation from local academies and clubs. And it’s not just about increasing the matches, but also ensuring that these are high-intensity, quality-driven games.

The issue of match volume can also be resolved if we strengthen the school and university football ecosystem. As we know, in India we have a far greater number of schools and educational institutions than local academies or clubs. If we can just make it part of the curriculum by partnering with the education ministry, kids can play during school hours, come back home and play with friends, and then play for their academy team on the weekends—since school football and club football shouldn't intersect with each other.

So, to sum it up:

• Incentivize academies to play in youth leagues (U7 - U21).

• Make kids play both structured and unstructured football.

• Increase the number of matches across all age groups by making the leagues a full-season format.

• Increase the quality of matches by having the federation strictly demand high-tempo games (otherwise facing demerit points).

• Ensure that local pitches and futsal courts are being built throughout the nation to motivate players to go out and play with friends.

• Execute the school football pathway to significantly increase the number of matches.

This is something which is not as difficult or time-consuming as completely overhauling grassroots systems or developing good quality coaches from scratch. It is purely administrative work that just needs execution.

If we do this, then we will be one step closer to that dream of sending an Indian player to top-tier European leagues like La Liga, the Premier League, the Bundesliga, or Ligue 1. And ultimately, we will be able to perform at the National team level too.

Question for the readers... 

Do you think administrative changes like this can finally get our kids the match time they need, or is Indian football stuck waiting for a miracle? 

Let me know your thoughts down below!