Col Brij Mohan Rai Mehta
Salient features: The Govt of India has recently approved the National Sports Policy 2025 which according to a Govt Press Release aims to drive excellence ,economic growth and social progress “while promoting well being of Citizens of India. The new comprehensive policy has twin objectives of “broad basing of sports and excellence in sports at national and international level to create a robust eco system that nurtures talent from the grass roots to the Olympic podium”
This new policy will replace the Sports Policy of 2001 and outlines a vision to make India a strong contender on the global stage ,including at 2036 Olympic games. It has been aligned with the new education policy (NEP 2020) and makes a pitch for using economic potential of sports.
Sports Policy 2025 promotes the establishment of competitive leagues and competitions and develops sports infrastructure In both rural and urban areas; builds world class systems for training, coaching and holistic athlete support; enhances the capacity and governance of NSFs; encourages adoption of Sports science, medicine and technology to boost athletic performance & trains and develops sports personnel others including coaches technical officials and support staff. It will address the issues of long standing issues of factionalism, infighting and governance mismanagement in NSFs ,the policy has aimed to establish a ‘Sports Regulatory Board ‘with powers to grant, renew and suspend affiliation of NSFs among others.
Indian Football: All India Football Federation the governing body of football was founded on 23rd June 1937 when representatives of football associations of six regions met at the then Army Headquarters, Simla. The six regions which attended the historic meeting were Indian Football Association (IFA), Army Sports Control Board (ASCB), United Provinces, Bihar, North West India Football Association and Delhi.It was affiliated to FIFA in 1948 and to AFC (Asian Football Confederation) in 1954 as one of the founding members.
Golden Era: The period from 1948 till 60’s under Coach SA Rahim (Rahim Saab) is called as the best or golden era of football.
Under Rahim Sahib’s able Coaching: London Olympics in 1948 was India’s first major international tournament, where a predominately barefooted Indian team lost 2-1 to France before getting eliminated in the first round. India qualified by default for the 1950 FIFA World Cup finals as a result of the withdrawal of all of their scheduled opponents but AIFF backed out of the tournament as well, citing “disagreements over team selection and insufficient practice time”.
The Indian team beat both Indonesia and Afghanistan 3-0 to reach the final where they beat Iran 1-0 to become the inaugural Asian Games winners in 1951.
After the title honour at the Asian Games India became the first Asian team to play in an Olympics semi-finals in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic with Neville D’Souza became the first Asian to score a hat-trick in the Olympics.
There has been no major honours for Indian Football team after the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games where India defeated South Vietnam in the semi finals and South Korea to clinch the Gold.
India defeated South Vietnam in the semi-finals and South Korea in the final (2-1) to clinch the Asian Games gold in Jakarta, Indonesia. India had few more wins at AFC Challenge Cup 2008, Nehru Cup in 2009, 2011 & Inter Continental Cup in 2018 but no more of Asian Games titles except a third place finish in 1970 Asian Games.
There has been downward slide in India’s FIFA ranking in both Men & Women. In FIFA Ranking India’s best was 94 in 1996 and at one stage was 173 in 2015 stands at 127 in the latest rankings. While Women’s football team are ranked at poor 70 which at one time was placed at 49 in 2013. Indian Men’s team which once dominated SAFF Countries are struggling to defeat these South Asian neighbours.
India had released Vision 2047 document in Dec 2022 for development of Football in the Country. As per that Indian Men’s team should have been in top ten in Asia and Women’s team at top Eight in Asia at the end of first four year cycle of 2023-26 which looks distant & unrealistic possibility as of now.
Now let us analyse salient of National Sports Policy 2025 viz a viz Indian Football below :
Talent Identification , grass roots: The age group at which young kids take to football is 12-14 years. This needs to be brought down to around ten years. Blue Cub League for children in 4-12 years age group is a right step in this direction. Kids play 2v2 or 7V7 to enjoy and play with maximum participation. AIFF has signed MOUs with FIFA for talent identification and development of Grassroots. FIFA Chief of Global football development Mr Arsenal Wenger has been consulted for development of Grass Roots and Talent Identification. His team is closely working with AIFF and the scouted talent are being trained in AIFF Academy. The team is conducting workshop for Indian Coaches and strengthening Talent Identification process across AIFF & other stakeholders. States and Clubs need to invest in GR development for talent identification and development of quality players. Govt /Corporates must invest in Developing new and professional Football Academies.
Competitive leagues and competitions:
Good & competitive leagues across the world are the nursery to provide pool of players to the National team. India’s National Football League was inaugurated in 1996 and won by JCT Phagwara. Later in 2010 it was redesignated as I League as a professional league of India on the lines of AFC.
From 2014 onward Indian Super League run by FSDL (Football Sports Development Limited) started which was franchise based & still continuing as a popular league in India and abroad though there are some questions for the 2025-26 season as the MRA between AIFF & FSDL is expiring in Dec 25.
Sports Infrastructure : With the development of infra structure for the proposed India’s bid for 2036 Olympics new Sports Infrastructure will be built. There are very few dedicated Football stadiums in the country as most of the existing stadia are multi purpose with an Athletic track around and the distance from Galleries to Pitch is quite far. AIFF needs to project to Govt for Football specific stadiums at least one-two in each state if not in every district.
Sports Science, Medicine and Technology: AIFF Vision 2047 document already has taken care of Sports Science ,medicine and technologies for Men as well as Women’s teams. GPS vests were used by the teams especially Men’s teams for scientific analysis of players physical performances on football field/while training. Services of Sports Psychologists have also been used for various teams including Women teams. AIFF has a Medical Committee which formulates policies for Dope control and age verification processes. Services of performance analyst and
Factionalism, infighting and Governance mismanagement in NSFs: There have been disputes due to Factionalism in quite a few NSFs including at National & State level which obstruct development of various sports. In some cases Courts of law had to give directions to appoint Administrators to administer the NSFs or the concerned NSFs appointed committees as enumerated in their respective Constitutions till Elections are conducted. This entails administrative & high expenditure on account of litigations and legal fees. In football also there have been litigations and factionalism disputes in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Telengana, Rajasthan, Assam ,Manipur among others between 2007 till date .Though most of these have been resolved after AIFF intervention and disposal of Cases in the Courts of law ,but some cases are still pending. The elections of the AIFF were conducted under a Supreme Court appointed Returning officer in Sep 2022 and present elected Executive Committee to bring NSF in line with Sports Code of the MYAS, how ever the Draft Constitution of AIFF is sub judice in the honorable SC. All the stake holders have given their submissions and objections on the draft constitution to be in line with Govt Sports Code /policies for governance of NSFs. The Honorable Supreme Court is expected to pass the order later this month. Once the Constitution is approved it will be adopted by AIFF with due process as per Societies Registration Act.
Peace & international Cooperation Activities through Sports :(OCI & PIOs): As per the National Sports Policy 2025 , “Sports can become a powerful bridge between Indian diaspora & India. Where ever feasible promising and prominent Indian origin athletes living abroad may be encouraged to come back and play for India at the International level”. This once approved by an Act of Parliament can open a flood gate for OCI & PIOs (Over seas Citizen’s of India and Persons of Indian Origin) and can supplement or fill the gaps of pool of talent in NSFs. A number of PIOs are currently playing football abroad in Europe and other countries. Once the legal approval is accorded by the Parliament these players would be able to represent India. It is also pertinent to mention that some football players of our neighboring countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh etc are playing in European Leagues and come and represent their respective countries in International Competition.
Khelo Bharat NITI 2025 envisages that States will also frame their own guidelines/policies as Sports is a State subject ,which once implemented will effectively improve Sports Governance in respective states & effectively develop sports in India. Once adopted this will also reduce litigations as all disputes will be referred to
Since India has formally it’s bid for 2036 Olympics it is imperative for all the stake holders including National Sports Federations and their affiliated States/Districts FAs to implement and act according to provisions of “Khelo India NITI 2025.
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