India goes nowhere in football rankings; Constantine says it is only getting tougher
INDIA HAVE HELD ONTO the 156th place in the latest FIFA rankings. After bolstering their ranking with a win over Nepal in the first round playoffs of the World Cup Qualifiers, the Blue Tigers suffered twin upsets in June as they lost to both Oman and Guam in the 2nd round. Due to play Nepal in an international friendly on 31st August, the Indian team will face their biggest test in of the year on 8th September, when they taken on Iran on 8th September at Bengaluru.
Ever since the beginning of the FIFA World Rankings India have struggled to secure a good position for themselves in the charts. In 1993, they were ranked 100, and they have never managed to match that rank since.
After years of ups and downs, things hit rock bottom in March 2015, when India were 173rd in the world. It wasn't as much as losing matches that caused that rut, as not playing enough. Irregular friendlies and national camps at long intervals has long plagued the Indian team, often causing them to play crucial matches under-prepared. Other times, when they got on a good run, there were suddenly no matches to play for the next 6 months, ruining the momentum.
Lack of professionalism in organizing matches (holding matches on non FIFA friendly days etc) also cost India crucial FIFA ranking points; like the 2012 Nehru Cup final where India beat Cameroon. And now with the advent of ISL, the extra pressure on the Indian football calendar makes it tough to make time for regular friendlies. And with some tough fixtures ahead in the World Cup Qualifiers, lack of friendlies means the Blue Tigers are at the risk of going in under-prepared once again.
Even coach Stephen Constantine rued the lack of friendlies recently, stressing on the need to prepare harder before playing a team like Iran,
"You need to remember that prior to the match against Nepal, most of the national team players have not played a competitive game since June 2015 (against Guam) while the others have not played since May 31, 2015, i.e., the completion of the I-League. So for some players, its more than two months while for the rest, it’s almost or even more than three months. The national team is at a huge disadvantage."
While Constantine wanted to play at least two friendlies before facing Iran, only one materialised: against Nepal. While a win against them will be some good practice for the boys and add some points to India's ranking table (possibly taking them up to 152nd position in September), but it is hardly enough before taking on the team ranked 41st in the world. Calling Iran the "Asian superpower", Constantine said,
"The road for us is as tough as I had expected it to be. There is a huge difference between the standard of the domestic leagues to international football."
A win in a World Cup Qualifier carries 2.5 times the weightage of an international friendly when it comes to rankings. When the difference between the teams in terms of their FIFA ranks are factored in, the points add up. In those terms, a draw with Iran in September can earn India many more points than a win over Nepal in a friendly. And these are the kind of matches that one has to win in order to earn a respectable position in the FIFA Ranking Table. But, unfortunately, after being bested by the likes of Oman and Guam only months ago, this seems like an uphill task to say the very least.
