FIFA World Ranking (May 2013)
Rank Team
1 Spain
2 Germany
3 Argentina
4 Croatia
5 Portugal
6 Colombia
7 England
8 Italy
9 Netherlands
10 Ecuador
11 Russia
12 Côte d'Ivoire
13 Greece
14 Switzerland
15 Belgium
16 Mexico
17 Uruguay
18 France
19 Brazil
20 Denmark
21 Bosnia-Herzegovina
22 Ghana
23 Chile
24 Sweden
25 Czech Republic
26 Mali
27 Montenegro
28 Nigeria
29 USA
30 Japan
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150
India :shocked:
It is nice to have one more football fan in the forum. We already have a thread on Indian football discussion in Sports section. But I have stopped updating as there was hardly any response.
On the lower side of the table the FIFA Ranking doesnt make much sense. I fyou play friendlies on FIFA mentioned dates and win you can easily move up the list. Even beating Nepal , Bhutan or East Timor. Again, weightage is more in case of WC or WC qualifiers. Throughout the 2012, Nepal and Bangladesh stayed ahead of us as they won matches in WC qualifiers. Nepal defeated East Timor and Bangladesh defeated Pakistan and Lebanon (in home match). We held UAE (who had played 1990 WC) 2-2 in home match of WC qualifier and Qatar 2-1 in a friendly. Still we could not get much points as the ranking system values a 'win' more than a 'draw' and a WC qualifier more than afriendly.
So, instead of bothering about ranking we should have a vision to be among the top Asian teams by 2020 (Please dont think about Spain or Brazil- That needs generations and total upliftment of our socio-economic condition), Now, What I consider top Asin Teams- Australia. NZ (both are included in Asian for the qualifiers), Israel (though a Asian team it is included in European group due to political reason), South Korea, Japan. Iran, Iraq, Jordon, Ujbekistan, Saudi Arabia. We are nowhere near to beat or even hold them as of now doesnt matter who is the coach or what preparation we have. We need to be among this team by 2020. Propably we can beat other strong teams with good team selection, preparation and coaching. You can consider Bahrin,Qatar, Oman, North Korea etc as the teams of second level.
Now, How the Sleeping giant should go ahead-
1) Including Foreign Players- Our Citizenship policy is a great barrier to include Indian origin or Foreign players. You cant expect Michael Chopra to give up British citizenship to play in Indian team. And there are only limited number of good Indian origin players. Even Izumi Arata is only a mideocre player. He wont make in the first 11 of the top teams like East Bengal or Churchill Bros. But, we can tap the number of African players who come and stay for long in India. Practically thinking Odafa Okoli Or Ranti Martin are now more Indian than Michael Chopra. Most of the Arab countries do that (excluding Iran and Iraq), even you can remember a Brazilian guy playing for Japan. Deco , who is a Brazilian played for Portugal. Of course, it is more satisfying to have sons of soil only in the National team, but we can include some foreign players in key players for short term. Some success in International stage will do good for popularity and bring investment.
2) Spread in all part of the Country. Now it is popular in some pockets only like N-E, Bengal, Goa and to some extent Kerala and Maharastra. You can see it is only a fraction of our big country and big population. IMG -Reliance is trying to start an IPL like tournament with some big names. I dont have much hope from it, but, it can get some public attention.
3) Involvement of Corporates- All necessary steps we can think require money. Fan base club like East Bengal , Mohun Bagan etc or family based Goan clubs neighther have money nor vision to create and maintain good infrastructure. So, involvement of Corporate sectors is very much needed. Tata never goes beyonf their Academy; Mahindra , JCT already removed their teams. Bengal Mumbai Club, FC Kochi etc which were set up by corporates are long gone as they didnt have any fan base. If IMG-Reliance succeed, some corporates may be interested again. Even if it kills traditional clubs I wont mind. Groups Like Relaince, Tata, Mahindra etc certainly have the capacity to build infrastructure like Stadium and other facilities which East Bangal , Mohun Bagan cant do in 100 years.