Congrats to Team India they have done us proud....I think this is start of rise of indian football....let us all support these boys so they can make it to the top.....chak de india
I couldn't see the game as I am in US. But I have been following the progress of the team to the finals of Nehru Cup. This win is simply awesome. Hopefully this win will revive Indian football. I love this game more than any other game simply because football is truly an international game unlike Cricket.
we won't win anything in any sport unless we built a sporting culture right from the schools. here if a child falls down and wounds his leg, the parents stop him from even running. they say ' are baitk kuch khela karo'
before saying that cricket is only played in 8 nations, read this page
http://www.icc-cricket.com/icc/members/
cricket is played in over 100 countries ie these countries have associations and teams but ICC gives full membership only to those teams that can compete with the top nations while FIFA gives full membership to almost all the UN nations. if the ICC functioned like FIFA, there would be 101 full cricket playing nations and iNdia would be ranked 8th out of 101.
in other words if FIfa functioned like ICC there would be only 20-30 full members and India would only be a affiliate since India cannot just compete with top nations in soccer. if India played Brazil they would be wacked 20 - 0. remember Australia once wacked xyz islands 37 - 0. i won't like to call islands such as solomon islands fotball playing nations.
RE:RE:those who crticise
by Magont on Aug 30, 2007 02:54 PM
I would be surprised if cricket is know as a game in 100 countries!!! Dont fool yourself. Look at all the teams, atleast half of all cricket playing nations would have persons of Indian origin playing. Can't we guess why the game is surviving? While I am not against cricket, I am against the monopolistic nature of it.
RE:RE:RE:those who crticise
by coldkiller on Aug 30, 2007 03:05 PM
no sport can touch the popularity of football let alone cricket. what i am saying is that its not necessary to downgrade or stop watching one sport to encourage another.
RE:those who crticise
by coldkiller on Aug 30, 2007 03:13 PM
football won't become popular if a few people sit around a table and utter words 'beautiful game' and 'the most beautiful game'
RE:those who crticise
by bhushan hegde on Sep 02, 2007 04:18 PM
cricket is played seriously by about 10 countries, in the balance 90 countries, there are about 50 people in each of those countries who play cricket... so it would be silly to call cricket a world sport. anyways who watches which have been scripted by bookies.
RE:those who crticise
by nidhi prakash on Aug 30, 2007 02:30 PM
no debate on this. u r obsessed with cricket. the amount of money that flows in cricket field ensures India 8th out of 10 top playing teams. Spend half that amount on football or any other sport and u will know we should have done it long ago........
RE:RE:those who crticise
by coldkiller on Aug 30, 2007 02:38 PM
i am obsessed with cricket, soccer hockey and tennis. this is just my view on some people calling cricket a 10 nation game.
no one gave charity to cricket. it was well marketed by a shrude person called Dalmia while people like Gill were laying eggs on their cushion sofa. Munshi is doing the same now, sitting on a cushion and blaming cricket for the sub-standard performances.
instead of looking for sympathy hire someone like Pele or Zico and make him India's chief soccer advisor. get teams like Barca, ManU, Madrid to play pre-season matches in India. only then the standard of game will improve.
soccer has many fans in India but it happens to be european soccer. that is why star and ESPN are even covering late night matchs. but Indian football is not just as popular. keep winning consistently and the money will flow.
RE:RE:RE:those who crticise
by Magont on Aug 30, 2007 02:58 PM
"keep winning consistently and the money will flow"
Had this been the reason why cricket is flourishing, I would have been very happy! Be realistic, ManU wont come to India just for the heck of it. Pele will come only if Govt is proactive and provides required support and assistance
RE:RE:RE:RE:those who crticise
by coldkiller on Aug 30, 2007 03:17 PM
cricket became popular when we won the 1983 world cup as a minnow. whenever India has put on a string of bad performances, the popularity has dipped. see what happened in this years world cup. but cricket and hockey has got the reputation, so they regain popularity as soon as they win something which is not the case with football. it has to do something big such as win the olympics medal or the Asian games gold to get a launch pad. the rest will follow.
@ Magont , thanks bro, we are at least having a decent discussion.
RE:those who crticise
by attacker on Sep 03, 2007 09:29 AM
in cricket india have won just one world cup that too 25 yrs back and that too not even 10 countries participated... nothing else in cricket...
indians bcome obessed with cricket and cant even dream of competing the strong nations in global sports...
now, india shud look towards power sports like football, hockey, or tennis.. rather than following sluggish sports, cricket.
RE:ChakDe INDIA
by coldkiller on Aug 30, 2007 02:22 PM
just because Pele once called spoccer 'the beautiful game' doesn't make all the other games ugly. let India win consistently against teams like NEpal,Pakistan, Syria etc, the corporates will be automatically attracted to football.
RE:ChakDe INDIA
by viem on Aug 31, 2007 03:20 PM
to put it in your own words, calling Soccer a beautiful game doesn't make all the other games ugly.You have a negative frame of mind.There can be other games which are beutiful, but soccer is Beautiful.
There are over 200 countries playing football, where as only 9 countries play cricket. India is currently ranked 151 in football and is hence better than more than 50 countries playing thi s beautiful game. On the other hand, India is ranked 5th/6th out of the 9 odd countries playing cricket. What a shame!
Its time we support the football and help our country make it to the world cup atleast once in the next 3 cups. I have played football at state league level in Kerala, and believe me its worth investing in the game. 1 hr 30 mins of unlimited passion.
India, as the winners of Nehru cup gets the following: USD 40,000 Prize money USD 40,000 Bonus prize money from ONGC INR 500,000 from Delhi Govt INR 1,000,000 from AIIF
Divide this for 16 players and the non-playing staff, each player gets around 2.5 Lacs on the higher side. Even if our cricket team is tamed by Bangladesh, on an average players earn 2.5 lacs per match!!! What a pity!!
I am ready to contribute a day's salary to revive this game in India, if the Govt take necessary steps to take up the cause.
RE:Come on!
by Anish Saha on Aug 30, 2007 03:28 PM
As a die hard football fan i wholly support the idea. If the corporates do not come forward to help the cause of indian football then we general public will go the distance in helping team india. Chake de india!
