As India tumbles in Asian Cup, focus shifts to grassroots from top to bottom approach

As the Indian men’s football team tumbled at the AFC Asian Cup, the most frequently talked about yet missing element in Indian football came to the fore again – the absence of grassroots football. It hurt Indian football more than anything else.

Despite being the world’s most populous nation, India could not replicate its growth trajectory of other walks of life in football.

India faltered badly in Qatar, the host of the Asian Cup, showing dismal quality and inability to meet the level of Asian sides.

Poor positional awareness of Indian players and their incapacity to hold on to the ball even for a fraction of a second and create precise passes were evident again.

That old saying that having and running a commercial league alone is not enough to elevate the level of the game of a national team became evident again.

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