The pride and the tragical history of the Indian Football team at the Olympics

History of our pride Indian football Olympians, We need to support this team to rejuvenate. 

It was 1948, soon after a couple of months of India's Independence, the world's most popular multi-game "Summer Olympics" was held in London (United Kingdom). After the 1936 Olympics in Berlin (Germany), there was a long twelve years of pause to organized the London Olympics. The essential reason for the deferral was the serious outbreak of the second world war.

For the Indian footballers, it was the first-ever international match in front of 17,000 hefty crowds against France. Coach Balaidas Chatterjee (An extraordinary footballer from the province of West Bengal, played numerous games for Mohun Bagan football club) had prepared the team and Talimeren Ao (A Memorable and amazing footballer and a Physician, born in Assam Naga Hills 1918) lead the team as a captain in the London Olympics of 1948.

Out of the eleven players, just three players from the T. Ao group had played the game with boots while the leftover eight players had chosen to play the match shoeless. Taj Mohammad, Dhanraj, and Papen were on boots and the remaining eight players wore just thick socks that were cut off at the ankles and were simply wrapped up to secure them and provide grip, and played the game bare feet.

In the 30th minute of the game, Rene Courbin gave a lead to France with 1-0, and just before half-time Swedish referee Gunnar Dahlner awarded India a penalty kick, but Sailen Manna missed the target and the ball flew over the crossbar. Later in the second half i.e in the 70th moment of the match, Sarangapani Raman scored the first goal with the help of Ahmad Khan and substitute player B.N Vajavelu and furthermore become the first Indian football player to score a goal in a worldwide match. Following ten minutes of the equalizer, India again got an opportunity with an extra shot (Penalty Kick), yet Mahabir Prasad's shot was saved by the French goalkeeper Guy Rouxel. At last, before the last one minute of the game's last whistle, Rene Persillon scored another goal and France took the triumph 2-1 and qualified for the quarterfinal. 

Nonetheless, it was an exceptionally fascinating match and the Indian team was recognized and valued by the public for great sportsmanship. A public interview was held soon after the match and asked the Indians team that why they had played the match bare feet. Then, at that point our Indian skipper Talimeren Ao said, " Well you see, we play football in India, whereas you play BOOTBALL". This statement was cheered by the British and the following day T. Ao's remark was in the title text of the London Newspaper.    

1952 Helsinki (Finland) Olympics: 

It was really the saddest match for India throughout the entire existence of the Indian football crew where our group had lost the match against Yugoslavia with a goal difference of 10-1. This group was lead by Sailen Manna's and Ahmed Khan was the player who was just able to give the initial goal at the 89th minute of the game. 

1956 Melbourne (Australia) Olympics:

Four years later, after the disastrous loss of the 1952 Olympics, the 1956 Olympics was quite possibly the most significant and fruitful international game that the Indian football crew had ever played. This team was led by Samar Banerjee with the guidance of India's most successful and great coach Syed Abdul Rahim (Coach of both 1952 and 1960 Olympics) and where India reached the semifinals. 

In this Olympics, India got some blessing because of the Hungarian revolution which was going on in those days and India got the walkover without playing the scheduled preliminary match and arrived at the quarterfinals against Australia. In the wake of arriving at the quarterfinal, India beat Australia with the differential goals of 4-2 and become the first Asian football crew to arrive at the semifinal in Olympics.

Afterward, India lost the match against Yogoslavia with a difference of 4-1 and after that loss, India fought for the bronze against Bulgaria but this time again India was crushed by a score of 3-0 and finished the match at the fourth position.

1960 Rome (Italy) Olympics:

1960, "Rome Olympic" was India's last appearance in the Olympics. The group was led by P.K Banerjee under the instruction of Syed Abdul Rahim. At that time India was put with three strong opponents i.e Hungary, France, and Peru.  

India lost a sum total of two matches against Hungary and Peru and played a draw against France with 1-1. Tulsidas Balaram scored a total of two goals i.e one each in both the matches against Hungary and Peru. However, both the match was lost with a score of 2-1 and 3-1 respectively. India was able to make a late equalizer with a goal of the captain P.K Banerjee against France but with two losses and 1 draw India was put at the bottom of the group and failed to move to the next round.

1964 to the current time: 

After the 1960's Rome Olympics India failed to qualify for the 1964 Olympics and again pulled out of the qualifying competition in 1968. In 1972 India couldn't qualify for the Olympics again and in 1976 pulled out from the qualifying competition. In 1980 and 1984 India was failed to qualify again for the Olympics and in 1988 India pulled out from the qualifying competition.

From 1908 to 1988, football at the Olympics was played by the senior national team of the country but from the year 1992, FIFA permitted just the U-23 national team to play in the Olympics. The awful reality is that, though U-23 are just permitted to play but, from 1992 to 2012 Indias senior national team was playing each qualifying match for the Olympics yet failed to qualify. The Asian football confederation (AFC) had begun the U-23 title in 2013 and from that point, it goes about as the qualifying competition for the Asian nations. Just the best three groups are permitted to enter the Olympics however from 1992 to 2012 India is yet battling to qualify for the Olympics.

Is there any solution for this:

It is extremely difficult to accept that we have more than 130 crore individuals living in India; however, we can't track down a strong eleven-player team to play a major international football match like the Olympics. So where India is lacking? As indicated by an investigation and research held by IMT (India) Institute of Management Technology) just 5.56% of the Indian populace i.e approx 57 Lakhs of individuals out of 130 crores has just a little information about sports in India which is considered as an exceptionally low and disturbing figure to specify.

In a factual report, it is tracked down that in India around 13% of our complete populace is exceptionally centered around cricket though scarcely 4% of individuals are keen on football/soccer. It is also said and reported in research findings by Kanishka Pandey (Head of the research center) and told to Dainik Bhaskar that, -

"Only 5.56% of the population is sports literate in India, where the percentage of women is only 1.31%. 57 lakhs peoples are directly or indirectly connected to sports in India whereas the sports literacy rate in America is 20%. In China, about 10 million people only take up badminton and if the rest of the games are added then the tally of China will overtake that of the USA"

• It is understood that we all can't turn out to be good sportspersons since everyone has an alternate decision of life yet we can encourage the individuals who are in a real sense interested to make their career in sports and are staying behind because of the absence of infrastructure, environment, and money.
• The public authority could make arrangements towards the incorporation of sports and games as a mandatory subject in schools and colleges so that, the inclusion of people in sports is energized, and this way proficient sportsmanship might rise further.
• Accessibility to sports in rural areas must be developed.
• "Sports career" could be encouraged by our parents if children's interests and talents are identified at a very young age.
•  The government should add more funds to the country's budget for sports advancement so that young talent should not stay behind because of proper equipment and platforms.
• Even though we have possibilities abilities for sports like Football, Hockey, Volleyball, still, these games have extremely lesser sponsorship and exposure in India thus government should ponder the drawbacks.
• India doesn't have any national game to mention, but the government can discuss this issue and specific sports funds can be added to the budget to encourage the "national game" and the players.   

If you think the above-mentioned points are not enough, you may also add your views by commenting below.

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