FIFA World Rankings - India #133

The "Football" fever is every where, especially the most awaited match, Argentina vs Germany, is due at 7:20 PM today. Sitting in front of the TV, my father casually asked me about the ranking of India and without any calculations, I told him that it must be after 100. As soon as i spoke this, i was most interested to know the exact rankings and found this thing here on FIFA.com.

India Ranks 133 in world rankings of Football teams and when you click at #133 (against India), it will show you the summary of Indian rankings and you know the highest ever ranking of Indian Football team is 94, in Feb 1996. Since then 14 yrs have passed and the ranking has rose* to 133 ;-)

I don't know whom to blame for this, but indeed the bureaucratic system of India is! We need to take this thing seriously. In the team games, leaving besides cricket, i can't recall where do we stand. You ask a school going kid or a collegiate about their favourite game, and  i assume that more than 80% will come out with cricket as the answer. Hockey being the national game of India, still struggles to make it a part of TRP. Hockey Premier League was a good step towards promotion of the game but regular and continuous push is required in team games other than cricket. Remember that here we are talking about a country with population of 1,139,964,932. 

I thought that keeping in mind the mega event of 2010 i.e. FIFA, Indian sports ministry should have cashed the opportunity and propaganda was not required here, which the private companies took very good care to create a good footballic atmosphere and hence forth must have moved the things further to promote this game in India. 

Now lets move our eyes towards FIFA 2014 and keep fingers crossed for Indian Footballers. All the best buddies!!!