'In India, everyone thinks they are Messi'

You watch the kids playing in the park – they have their Barcelona jerseys and the Manchester United colours, the Nike studs, the gelled hair. The look is just right. Then you wait and watch them play. And it all quickly goes downhill from there. They can’t trap well, they can’t kick well and their tactics are bad. If India want to make their way up the football ladder, then they have to start working at the grassroots level first. The big Leagues and all are good but unless you produce quality, people aren’t going to turn up at the stadium. And if you can’t get them to do that, the sport will never take off. Paul Masefield, Ex-English Footballer and TV Pundit at ESPN Star Sports, is in India to try and change things. He is the technical director at KOOH Sports, a Sports Education and Training firm and he was in India to help with the deployment of a football program across the country. [caption id=“attachment_1003327” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Paul Masefield feels Indian football needs help. [/caption] “Never too young or too old to learn. But I would say that about the age of 6 or 7 is ideal to get into the game. That’s when you learn the basics and that’s what helps you later on,” said Masefield. “Each region is slightly different. But the basics are just not there. Control and dribbling skills are not good. The thought process is cumbersome. “In Goa, it’s slightly better, they have the knowledge. But in other places, it was quite bad – the skills just haven’t been taught. Yet, everyone thinks they are Lionel Messi.” But someone, said Masefield, needs to tell them that. Someone needs to tell them that basics are important. Someone needs to tell them that the boring bits need to be done. Someone needs to tell them that they can become Messi only if they first master the basics. That is what it all boils down to. And once you gets your basics down, you need a place to showcase those skills. And that is where the AIFF’s strange gameplan is perplexing. The AIFF has sanctioned a second league in conjunction with IMG-Reliance. The IPL-style League is supposed to help Indian football but will it really? The I-League clubs association has rejected the proposal and Masefield understands where they are coming from. “Personally, that’s not for me. A lot of the clubs have invested a lot of time and money in the I-League and instead of pumping money into that, the AIFF has decided to back another league. I can’t understand why the AIFF is pushing so hard for this League.” Masefield said. The AIFF, on their part, believe that if they can get some big names (even if they are retired or past their best) it will do the sport a lot of good. But Masefield doesn’t see the sense in that either. “Indian football is at the crossroads. They don’t need two leagues competing against each other. They need one stable league. It’s not like cricket where people will watch anything and everything. Rather, the whole idea should be to pump big bucks into the I-League and push it to become better. Get people in to watch and improve the quality of play. Instead, we see the AIFF come up with this League.” “How will bringing in older players help – a lot of them won’t even be able to run and if you can’t do that, then you can’t play. In the middle of the season, they want a league that will run for just 2-2 and a half months. They want to hold training camps. And they won’t have many of the top Indian players. What’s the use? I just see the different league causing a lot of problems.” While the English Premier League and the La Liga are big Leagues, India can’t blindly follow them. In fact, they might be better served following the example of another developing football nation. “The league in Thailand has grown immensely but that is also directly co-related to the big money that is being pumped into the game. Singapore is also doing well because they tend to do things in a much more structured manner and it’s small. Malaysia is doing pretty well too,” said Masefield. “India’s football needs help. It’s hard to imagine such a huge country languishing in the lower depths of world football. They need to get their act together and it has to start with the AIFF.”