As one reads through Shyam Sundar Ghosh’s ‘Kick-Off, Untold Stories of Indian Football’, one thing becomes clear: Indian football has been stuck in a hamster wheel for well over 30 years. The inept administration, lack of foresight and politics that held the sport back in the 80s still remain, just updated in its sophistication and packaging.
In the 28-chapter book, the veteran journalist takes the readers through the history of the sport from his lived experiences. There are uncomfortable questions raised — like the validity of the 1950 World Cup invite or a chapter named ‘PK a failure?’
Having worked in West Bengal, Ghosh also sheds light on the politics of Kolkata football which has often come at the detriment of the national team — case in point being a mass walkout by Bengal players during the Asian Games camp in 1982.
Ghosh also raises pertinent questions about the money that has flown through AIFF, telling stories of a time when the money was moved to a person’s personal account because of internal politics in AIFF. There was a plan to build a Bengal football academy for which the money was given by the All India Football Federation but neither the money nor the academy are to be found. Missing paper trails and finances form part of the narrative at the AIFF in the last century.
What could have been...
The national team’s history also makes for fascinating reading. There are stories regarding discrimination, biases and misplaced club loyalties when it came to picking players for the national team in the 1960s. Ciric Milovan’s mildly successful efforts to improve the national team and his resignation following his struggles to come to terms with the politics is also interesting. However, you are struck with the quality of opponents that India used to play, compared to the present.
In fact, the golden era of Indian football in the 60s is often romanticised and looked back with great fondness, as are the characters present at the time. The book brings out another perspective, which is harsher and punctures a hole in this fantasy. While there is some truth to Ghosh’s take, many would still prefer to look at that era with rose-tinted glasses. After all, that is the high point for Indian football.
What you are left with at the end of the book is a feeling of what could have been had the people in power got their act together, had the Kolkata clubs and administration — for years the powerhouses in Indian football — looked beyond their immediate neighbours and cared for the nation’s development.
What is concerning is, how little things have changed.
Ghosh points clearly at the media for their bias and propaganda regarding Indian football in modern times where the truth is often buried under an avalanche of hype. The successes, however small, are overblown and the mistakes and faults underplayed by the media. There is truth to this and its evidence is there for all to see; one just needs to pay attention and not get carried away by the headlines. The author is also not enamoured by the Indian Super League’s ascension to the top of the pyramid.
The book itself is a breezy read, and improves considerably in the second half. It’s informative but coloured by individual bias, so to treat it as a work of history would be wrong.
There are also many editing errors throughout and the book digresses to the writer’s experiences at multiple World Cups, which shifts focus away from Indian football.
All things considered, Ghosh raises and answers some important questions in Indian football. It’s clear, and this scribe agrees, that the World Cup for India, at the moment, is a distant pipe dream.
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