Maidaan and Contemporary Indian Football

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Last week, I watched the movie Maidaan in theatre. No doubt, it was entertaining, with heartbeat fluctutaing every few seconds during match scenes (much like a good game of football). Unfortunately, the movie tanked at box office as of now, despite its good content and overall acting. 

Afterwards, while ruminating on it, I realized the right timing when the movie got launched in theatres. Initial part of the movie had the Indian football team struggling badly, and even in midst of the movie, where people did not have any faith in the team to win. This is the exact scenario currently with our Indian football team as well, where we are mostly on a losing streak and suffering badly. This one year is not going really well for our country. The team, coach and AIFF is facing backlash for losing against Afghanistan as well, a country that is under the rule of Taliban and isn't doing well in socio-political realm. Some of the football fans are demanding resignation from the head coach Igor Stimac (or AIFF to terminate him) and retirememnt of some elderly players in the team who is not performing well.

The plot of the movie (which is real, but do not know how much makers have changed the facts or events for artistic freedom to make movie interesting) shares similarities with the current scenario. Team is being heavily criticized, people are losing faith again (which took a lot of time to be built since Chhetri's appeal in 2018 for fans to come watch matches in stadium), termination of head coach, internal politics in the federation, etc. 

There are many factors which are responsible for the hindrances. Other than quality of coach and players, federation's role, grassroot development of football, scouting of young talents across India, among others, play as factors as well. This is where we are considerably lacking. 

All India Football Federation (AIFF) is responsible for all the (financial) decisions to develop football from grassroot to national level. Though we are not familiar with the inner workings of the federation under Kalyan Chaubey, there does not seem much difference in the results. At least, the federation did not get (almost) banned by FIFA unlike when AIFF was under its previous President. I really wanted Bhaichung Bhutia to win Presidential elections for AIFF, hoping he would make it even better. The recent harassment case in start of this month is also a problem, where executive member of the federation allegedly assaulted 2 girl players who were competing in IWL. Compared to boys, not so much girls take up football as a sport, aspiring to be a professional or as a hobby. Incidents like this becomes even more demotivating, not just for football but in any sport or activity. The character of Shubhankar in the movie was quite annoying, making me feel like to smash something hard on his head. Unfortunately, officials like him do exist even now at any position in federation, who are only there for their selfish motives. 

As Ajay Devgn said in the movie that we have to give chance to young talents and not just idealize the old stars. Unfortunately, we are not getting many players with desired skill set and talents, who can take play well (at any position). Current players like Chhetri and Gurpreet have contributed a lot to the team in past years. There has been a question of who will fill in Chhetri's shoes as a striker/forward once he retires, as we still have not found such a player and a leader. Though me, like many others, want Chhetri to continue playing for as long as he can, it is unrealistic as he is nearing the retirement age as a player and may not be able to contribute a lot with limitatings of a ageing body. We need young dynamic players who can play at any position, while specializing in one and a few who are capable to be a leader. 

To be honest, I was surprised that Maidaan was a biopic of a coach and not a player, where we have only seen biopics of players till now. There were talks of Bhaichung Bhutia's biopic too, but no idea now about it. Returning to the coach- Indian football experienced its golden era under the tutelage of Syed Abdul Rahim. After winning Asian Games in 1962, its been more than half a century since we have won Asian Games. This makes me wonder- once the tenure with Stimac ends, if it is possible, why don't we give a chance to a Indian coach who is well qualified and eligible to coach and lead national team? After all, it was an Indian coach only who mentored and led India to win Asian Games back in 1962. In recent years, we have only seen foreigners as head coach for the senior national (men's) team, with Stephen Constantine being the most successful foreign coach. 

Surely, the results have been disappointing and it is hard to keep hopes, when we are losing against small teams with lower ranks in FIFA. But it is the time to support all the Indian teams across age and gender categories. India has made remarkable comebacks in the past, and we hope the same for upcoming matches.

The Blue Tigers 💙🐯

P. S.- Do go see the movie in your nearby theatre if it is still screening. Genuine recommendation and not a paid review (not that I have any connections with crew members of the movie to be paid for the promotion😂)