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Insufficient facilities bane of India's football development

Mumbai - India languish in 155th place in the FIFA world rankings and a recent humiliating 2-1 loss to tiny Guam further underscored the country's urgent need to develop a crop of future stars.

 India's glitzy super league returns this weekend, but a struggling national team and insufficient facilities in the cricket-mad country means the "sleeping giant" of world football is unlikely to stir anytime soon.
India languish in 155th place in the FIFA world rankings and a recent humiliating 2-1 loss to tiny Guam further underscored the country's urgent need to develop a crop of future stars.
But foreign players, who have flocked to the Indian Super League (ISL) for the second season, said more youngsters would only turn to the beautiful game if there were green spaces to play on. "All the kids, they love football. They want to play football but there are no facilities," said former French international Nicolas Anelka.
Anelka, the player-manager of Mumbai City FC, said even his own side was having trouble finding a grass pitch to prepare for the coming season. "We have to find a way to train on normal grass (instead of artificial turf). We have to find something. I don't know when, I don't know how," the frustrated Frenchman said. Former caretaker England boss Peter Taylor, who famously handed David Beckham the captaincy of "The Three Lions", said the infrastructure he has seen since being appointed Kerala Blasters coach is troubling.
"I look at some of the facilities and again they could improve, there's no doubt about that because some of the pitches should be better," Taylor told reporters.
Brazilian great Zico, FC Goa's coach, praised the ISL for raising the sport's profile but stressed that long-term investment, opportunities and time were also needed to help steal attention from cricket.
"In Japan they used to play baseball and then they built a lot of football grounds, and then people could play football," the former Japan national team boss explained.
He added that India required a better coaching set-up at the grassroots level if the "sleeping giant" is to be woken. Stevie Grieve, a football commentator and coach based in New Delhi, agrees.
"None of the current Indian professional players look like they've had any technical work as kids. So the national team coach has to actually teach them stuff that they should know when they are 12 or 13," he told AFP. And Grieve said if that success can be harnessed, India can think about trying to qualify for the World Cup in "at least 18 years".
 

India can think about trying to qualify for the World Cup in "at least 18 years", says Stevie Grieve