Golden past and the Crappy present of Indian Football (Soccer)

Today Jeshi had written about the victory of the Indian Football (Soccer) team in Nehru Cup 2007.  Well it has been ages since the Indian team won anything in football!  But it wasn’t always like this!

In 1956 – Melbourne Olympics, where the hockey team won the then regular gold medal, the football team stood 4th!  In fact India won two Gold medals at the Asian Games – 1951 in New Delhi and 1962 in Jakarta.  India were also runners up in Merdeka Cup (a prestigious tournament then) in Kuala Lumpur in 1959 and 1964.  Also, in the Asia Cup in 1964, India finished as runner ups!

In the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Neville D’Souza scored a hat trick as Indian defeated Australia by 4-2!  In the semi-finals, Indians played Yugoslavia and again took a lead in the second half as D’Souza scored the first goal.  The Europeans came back and scored 4 consecutive goals to win and move to the finals.

In the finals, the Soviets defeated the Yugoslavs.  Bulgaria was 3rd, and India 4th!

The decade of 1951 to 1962 was the golden period of Indian football.  Of course, those in Bengal would never believe that.  For them the world of football has revolved around Mohun Bagan and East Bengal.

And for anyone, who wants to find what is wrong with the Indian football?  Well, a player gets paid $10/match as allowance abroad.  There is no per match payment or any bonuses.  The All Indian Football Federation is a bunch of jokers who behave as if the world is theirs… mostly politicians who are simply megalomaniacs!

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