Drop in rankings due to less exposure

Mumbai’s Women Footballers, who have also been a part of the Indian Women’s Football team, bemoaned the lack of international playtime that the team gets as the the team plunged to 60th position from 56th according to the latest FIFA rankings released on June 23. Another reason behind this drop is the devastating loss the team faced after a defeat in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Mumbai footballer Karen Pais, 17, who lives in Dahisar has represented the women’s national team on different occasions for the Under 16 age group, she criticises the lack of international matches that the team plays. “Football as a sport in India is growing, but we need more play time. We get to play with South Asian countries for international exposure, but there is no such competition against them. Our team doesn’t even get to play friendly matches with teams outside Asia. And when we do get to play against international teams, it is after a gap of years,” she says.

The Indian women’s football team also suffered an 8-0 defeat at the hands of North Korea in the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers held in Pyongyang, a precursor to the FIFA World Cup in 2019.  

“Prior to any international event, there are camps just one month before the tournament and after the event, there is no news from the management regarding the training. We need better training like the men’s team,” Karen adds.

The FIFA Women’s World Cup was launched in 1991 and there have been seven editions, the Indian Women’s team has failed to qualify for any of them. Juhi Shah, 23, is the captain of a local football club, Bodyline FC and she has officiated national games as well. She is currently playing in WIFA’s Women’s Champions League. Juhi scorns the lack of competitive tournaments and the support from the government. “I have been playing football for around 12-15 years and I have not seen any state tournament, we are fortunate to have this tournament by WIFA, but I think there should be more initiatives like these by AIFF as well.  It is terrific that our country is organising the Under-17 FIFA World Cup but because of that, we are ignored more than usual. Also, there are no international friendly games for so long. The players are not ready for big games and then there are disappointing results,” says Juhi.

After the women’s team had won the South Asian Football Federation Women’s Championship, AIFF on January 24 this year, announced the Women’s I-League, where there were six teams that competed against each other in the first season. Lauding the initiative, Karen asserts, “It is a fine platform for young footballers like me to play with the best footballers of the country. I hope we continue the I-League so that it will get better players out for the national team. It will be easier for selectors to scout a player which was earlier done only in the national level tournaments.”