The World's Worst Run National Football Team

[@bababababababa6124]

It’s gotten so bad that we’ve gotten to the point where India and China cannot use THAT excuse anymore. The “football isn’t that popular” excuse. Every time an Indian says that I roll my eyes

[@redboyjan]

They say that, while pocketing all the money that is meant for actual football

[@divyanshudev]

i can confirm atleast 30% of sport enthusiast don't even know there is a wc qualifier match on 21 nd 26th march in india

[@freecoder522]

Bro, if west likes football that doesn't mean everyone will like it .Yes, India and China doesn't like or talk about football much. And that's all right. If the younger generation will like the game , it will still take years to improve the quality and infra for the game .

[@studentNEET319]

You are correct on the excuse,if you went to the South and East and the Northeast of India you'll always find people playing football

[@shawklan27]

​@divyanshudev well that's depressing

[@siler22]

Argentinian and Brazilian national teams seem more supported in India then Indian national team

[@kmachuca]

Same thing Bangladesh. See nothing but Messi Argentina jerseys. It’s a reason why these European clubs do Asia preseason tours. It feels like if some of these Asian countries could develop 2-3 national stars they could develop true fanfare.

[@SuperAnimeking100]

Son Heung Min is the best example @@kmachuca

[@zosiazaremba7479]

​@@SuperAnimeking100 Not the best example, while Son is Asia's biggest superstar, South Korea had been World Cup regulars and won the Asian cup before

[@AVietnameseWanderingAround]

@@SuperAnimeking100 you weren’t alive on Park Ji-sung’s peak, were you?

[@SuperAnimeking100]

@@AVietnameseWanderingAround I was, just not a football fan until the 2010 World Cup so I don't know how his popularity compares to Sonny. I've heard of him but Idk his status in the Korean zeitgeist vs Sonny

[@davidbowie5023]

China may have been utterly bad at the moment, but China still has a grassroot of its own, just not properly weaponised. That root was the reason behind China’s appearance in 2002 World Cup. India is beyond me. Unless massive reconstruction takes place, expect less from India to do bigger things.

[@karannsyt]

Indian football will never take off unless politicians stop getting involved and let actual football people make footballing decisions

[@theoggunner]

That hope is gone, bhaichung Bhutia lost the recent elections as well, he’s probably the biggest Legend of modern Indian football, but he lost, while Kalyan Chaubey is also a former footballer he’s a member of the ruling BJP so pretty much a politician

[@shawklan27]

​@@DNZ759 ouch

[@MrJermson]

​@@DNZ759China had not invested in football for the last 25 years as you claimed. The only time China invested was when Xi proclaimed his love for football and all the wealthy clamoured for his affections by acquiring superstar footballers to join their league football. The communist government done nothing for football. In fact, India government done more for ftheir country ootball than the communist government done for China.

[@Berins_Editzz]

I think I’m the most underrated editor

[@armaan_756]

Our head coach Igor Stimac said that our current national players don’t have the basic fundamentals that you learn as a 10 year old in academies.

[@MK12275]

Anyone who opposes this comment is deluded and doesn't want to accept the reality we've seen it.

[@kshitizsancheti]

When did he say that?

[@renaswin7322]

​@@MK12275why can't the aiff fix that problem.

[@MK12275]

@@renaswin7322 Well firstly AIFF is really corrupted they really don't care about developing the youth and don't invest money on facilities or promote football enough and also there's a lot of politics going within itself . Other problem is in the youth academies where coaches show bias and don't the let the kids with actual potential succeed . The other problem is the parents who won't allow their children to take a risk like this looking at how bad India's football team is. All parties here are responsible so only blaming AIFF won't be the right thing but it is their lack of competence that caused this

[@bipin249]

What does academy teaches them that we are missing?

[@theoggunner]

The most ridiculous was when we learned that they were paying astrologers to pick the team. Lost all respect for the manager, and couldn’t believe he didn’t get sacked then and there

[@christianvandegraaf9844]

Read up on the last 80 years of Asian history, especially Myanmar, Thailand and even South Korea, and you'll find that astrologers and soothsayers aren't just prominent in the politics of football. In all likelyhood the coach would have been fired for NOT taking that "advice" seriously.

[@zosiazaremba7479]

Mauricio Pochettino openly admitted to believing in magical power of lemons. While being a coach in the Premier League. How can a man say something like that during a press conference and still be taken seriously ever again, let alone keep his job is beyond me. So yeah, India isn't that far behind.

[@khaldrago911]

lol, the soccer team encapsulates how the rest of the country is run!

[@Z71990]

​@@khaldrago911so u are saying Since Tottenham manger said the almost the same thing, so.....

[@zosiazaremba7479]

@@Z71990 Poch said it while in charge of Chelsea. In his own words, lemons absorb "bad energy" or some shit and he'll try to find blue lemons to match the team colours. Inagine being a Chelsea player listening to this. I can't even tell what's worse, this way of thinking in and on itself or an idea to go to the pressroom and share it with the whole world

[@stackhat8624]

Football doesn't even have to get close to cricket's popularity for them to have a decent football team. England, France, Spain and Argentina all have major sports outside football. Germany won the World Cup last year in basketball.

[@roughysk9851]

germany's national sport, also as popular as footbal or basketball: handball japan and korea's most popular sport: baseball these 3 are regular world cup contenders

[@thepolishnz]

@@roughysk9851 USA has been in every world cup since 1990 and its like the 6th most popular sport

[@Chippychips8-2]

@@thepolishnz Except for 2018

[@manchesterunitedno7]

@@roughysk9851 japan and Korea also great in badminton.

[@Trutifruity]

​@@manchesterunitedno7so is india

[@itssurajsamant]

Man, as an Indian football fan, it's like a rollercoaster of hope and frustration, you know? We've got so much potential, but the management and execution are just a mess. It's crazy how football is huge in places like Bengal, Kerala, Goa, and other southern states, yet decisions that shape our footballing future are made miles away in Mumbai and Delhi. And don't even get me started on how poorly football fans are treated or how the scheduling is all over the place. Like, seriously, why can't they figure out a schedule that doesn't clash with the IPL? It's a bummer, honestly. All we can do is cross our fingers and hope our national team shines despite all the chaos. I've got faith in the players and the fans, but the organizers and management? Not so much.

[@abhiN3127]

Man our league system especially ISL is pretty awful we need to learn from European countries league system

[@theoggunner]

In general, fans are treated poorly in stadiums in India , and while in cricket that doesn’t matter because people will flock to watch you, it will affect your attendances in football

[@achry907]

even here in north east football is very popular .. there are a lot of talented players here who with proper training and financial help can at least reach a higher level than any of our former players had in the past ... but you know the reason .... politics and politicians who have little to no knowledge of the sport are involved in it ... not only in football but in every sports organization .. unless politicians aren't removed from sports organizations .. esp in football ... we wont achieve anything ...

[@rogink]

I can't say I've ever given much thought to football in India, as it's obvious how much more popular cricket is. Given it seems to be more popular in certain areas - and India is such a big country - might it make more sense to organise leagues at a regional/provincial level in places like Kerala and West Bengal? That would still allow for a knockout tournament at national level, which is obviously modelled on the IPL.

[@romrich]

Based on Indias FIFA ranking, yall literally DO NOT have potential lmfao

[@Ironbanner12]

As a football fan, from a football crazy part of India, this makes me so sad.

[@sajinashaiju9208]

Kerala, Goa, Bengal, Northeast?

[@mielerodriguez5678]

Yeah what area?

[@justarand0mm]

@@sajinashaiju9208 kerala,i can tell from his channel

[@sahil5rana]

​@@sajinashaiju9208 kerela doesn't produce any good player they are only talk

[@navinkv265]

@@sahil5rana Sahal, Rahul, Vineeth and more in ISL. Indian football legends like I M Vijayan (named the Most Valuable Player of the SAFF Championship thrice (in 1997, 1999, and 2003)the Most Valuable Player of the Nehru Cup thrice (in 1993, 1997, and 1999)), V P Sathyan (led the Indian team to a gold medal in the 1995 SAF Games) And, You were saying?

[@alchemist6819]

I am glad someone finally talks about it. As an Indian I am extremely disappointed at how poor our national team is.

[@freecoder522]

Why be dissatisfied and disappointed, if west likes football that does not mean you too will like it. Foot ball is not quite popular in genera public in India. And that's a fact. We like Chess, Cricket , Hockey etc. It's just like saying if west likes Color Blue very much then you should like the colour Blue just like them .

[@alchemist6819]

@@freecoder522 I don't care if others like it or not. Football is my favourite sport and I want us to do well in it.

[@marekjones273]

​​@@freecoder522There is more than just watching cricket.

[@ExtCasual]

No, Football is way more popular than hockey and chess in India 😂😂😂 ​@@freecoder522

[@dweeep03]

@@freecoder522why are you on a football channel commenting about this stuff? Did you even watch the video? Your 5 comments on just this one video don't add anything to the discussion so don't bother with spewing nonsense here

[@banterhub3354]

and yesterday they lost 2 1 to afghanistan at home, fucks sake

[@RAJ_GADHAVI]

As an indian it's really shameful. People here watch only 1 sport & it's cricket, people don't even appreciate other sports. 😢 also our football players expect us to support them but they play even wrose than us there. So we don't even watch football coz it's like waking up seeing our country loosing in football & repeat.

[@facts2676]

​@@RAJ_GADHAVI Brother, stop looking for excuses, football may not be the most popular sport in India but there is still about 30% of the population that likes it (for India that 30% is more than 100 million) 

[@Gmthekiller]

Lol. You guys won 3 world Cup total in cricket😂😂​@@RAJ_GADHAVI

[@RAJ_GADHAVI]

@@Gmthekiller 3 ODI world cup** if you are talking about achievements & awards, then india won 3 ODI world cup with 2 time runners up, 1 t20 world cup & 1 time runners up, 2 times runners up in test world cup.

[@Gmthekiller]

@@RAJ_GADHAVI it's a joke. Cricket is given God status here and incredibly detrimental to all other sports. 3 ODI world Cup is a rather steep price to pay for having literally next to zero achievement in other sports. Cricket is like a curse to India and will always deprive her of worldwide recognition in Olympics or other sports championships

[@SilliusSodus]

A great April Fool’s idea for this year would be an all time bald XI. To qualify, each player must have been folically challenged for the majority of their career, and more importantly, must have been very good at football. So Drogba wouldn’t count because he went bald after he retired but Robben would count. A stupid idea but a little bit amusing maybe.

[@Luca-ly7vh]

7 Greatest Hairline Comebacks In Football

[@SilliusSodus]

@@Luca-ly7vhAndros Townsend would be top 3

[@68Boca]

Showing my age here, but Steve Bould would be a walk up start!

[@rahulsrinivas3224]

​@@SilliusSodus Ter stegen and David Silva would be up there.

[@Alacarte614]

Rogerio Ceni, Rooney and Bobby Charlton would be in the team for sure

[@ronyLaPulga]

You explained what none of the many clout craving Indian football KZbinrs couldn't do, they just steal content from European creators and translate it in Hindi, as an Indian I'm very happy you did research on such a deep level and explored the faults that no once could have imagined as an underlying issue, thanks Alfie.

[@zinematicgamingrpg]

Football will India will never grow. To quote the famous Arsenal phrase " it's the hope that kills you "

[@karannsyt]

Well there is no hope to kill me, I simply have 0 expectations, we are never becoming relevant in football unless systemic changes happen, there is simply no point in watching and rooting for a qualifier because the next day they will announce budget cuts and pocket the money while we keep watching on like clowns

[@zinematicgamingrpg]

@@karannsyt Seriously. Gone are the days of reading articles on google about when will football grow in India. I have stopped going to football matches with any expectations.

[@That_was_me]

​​@@zinematicgamingrpg Nd if you are not aware bcci is building a huge cricket stadium in Kerala, goa, Bengal renovating old cricket stadiums and increasing capacity to 100k+ , adding 10 new ipl franchises till 2030 and there were rumors a few months back bcci planning to launch a new t10 tournament. Football is never going to be huge in India and will happen like Australia

[@surojeetchatterjee]

​@@zinematicgamingrpg There is no hope in India for football with 2600$ per capita income. Footballers will born in India when Bengal state of India will have 10000$ per capita. Not before that. As a good footballers son I can tell u that.

[@That_was_me]

@Lalll-qn5fn football will never grow 🤣🤣🤣

[@hasanzain6340]

Sports isn't taken seriously in India. Cricket takes the lion's share of limelight when it comes to sporting events. At local level even, if kids want to play football in their neighborhood, they're either not allowed because some "uncles walking in the park might get hit by the ball" or they're advised it's better they study than waste their time playing.

[@meciocio]

chess is doing pretty great too

[@freecoder522]

We like chess and we are doing pretty good in chess as well .

[@karannsyt]

@@meciocioall due to vishy, his brilliance cultivated modern stars

[@soundscape26]

@@meciocioChess is cool and all but it's not a sport.

[@saikatghosh9073]

​@@karannsytChess was invented in India bruhhh

[@Wozniak_15]

As an Indian lemme give a ground reality picture. There are millions who love football here, and there are millions of aspiring players, who are very talented. But now the problems are: corruption, lack of basic football infrastructure and over all no investment from government. The players in the national squad or in the clubs are just some average players. The better players were not selected cus of bribery. Only the rich gets thru trials. Only the ones who has good connection with the authorities get thru. N the naturally gifted Neymars Messi's CR7's are left dejected and frustrated. Well, then how do u expect the national team to achieve anything??? Also, no investment and any interest from the govt as they're too obsessed with cricket. No good stadiums. No nothing done from football. We play in mud ground mostly. Still, our passion is high as ever. We watch every international club football games on TV/ phones. Stop corruption and let the really gifted players play, and we'll surely be playing WC in no time. There is a small region in India where football is in its best form, Northeastern States (Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya). They'll win u World Cup's. Give them a chance.

[@AnnubrataRoy]

Finally HITC sevens and Alfie covered our mismanagement so deeply 🙏

[@Abhigyandas23]

Thanks mate for talks on India no one will talk of it

[@asruluveira]

yeah. India only came up when people talking about rape culture. or the way Indian can't fight or swim.. I am not being funny. just look at the way china beat India soldier to death in ladakh. after they find out that real life are not like Bollywood movie, they lost their balls and Jump into the river to escape. they are so scared that they forgot that they can't swim.

[@sameerk7151]

I literally cried after ref blew last whistle in Asia cup match against Syria because we didn't even scored a single goal I just wanted 1 DAMM goal but these players b couldn't get that. I still supports my national football but that day was maybe the worst since I started watching football😢

[@25baam23]

😂😂 loosing Afghanistan what u want more budy😂

[@Nick_TV_Producer]

India are huge underachievers in all sports, not just football. Even in Cricket, where they should be far and away the best team, like the US in basketball or China in table tennis, they are always one of the best but never levels above Australia/South Africa etc. Their all time Olympic medal haul is woeful. It's something that's intrigued me for ages and the explanation must be something wider in Indian society, culture and government

[@thepolishnz]

india spends more in cricket than the next 9 ICC members combined and have won in twice out of 15 and still wont stop whining about losing the latest world cup(much like ireland in the rugby) yet australia has won the CWC 6 times. only the west indies have also won it more than once. how can cricket india spend over a billion (USD)dollars and still lose a world cup while cricket australia only spent 22(AUD) million?

[@higherpower254]

There’s no sporting culture in India. They’d rather watch rather than perform

[@Nick_TV_Producer]

​@DNZ759 are you saying India is not underperforming? India is ranked 4th in men's hockey rankings and 9th in women's. As a nation they are incredibly bad at sport. Chess is a game, by the way. Not a sport.

[@dabbbaded1342]

genetics 💀

[@givemeyoursistersinstagram655]

This guy gets it

[@jotarokujo9164]

How about Thailand Alfie? Thailand has an insane football passion and the Thai League 1 is one of Asia's richest football leagues, hence why Thai clubs are so competitive and financially wealthy. Yet Thailand is a major underachiever in Asian football so far. I am Uzbek-Norwegian, having travelled to Thailand before and I was so stunned with the love for football yet they always flop when they should have come up with the better, and now despite their successful Asian Cup 2023 run, Thailand is on the verge of failing to qualify for the World Cup because of a 2-1 loss to China.

[@animevsirl]

I wouldn't say "on the verge of failing to qualify for the World Cup" when they have only played 2/6 games in second round of qualifier. Things can change in the other 4 games. The only nation that guarantee to be knocked out of their group is Singapore cause my nation football is even worse

[@jotarokujo9164]

@@animevsirl Unless South Korea have to drop points, but they also played 2/6 matches, and they are unlikely to let Thailand go.

[@TheCheesyNachos]

the thai fa has been a mess also tbh, maybe not as much as other ones but still somewhat. im more optimistic now tho if we stick with the current gaffer, but it might be too late for the wc2026. also asia is just damn competitive also as a federation to qualify through. an aside, but i really hope singapore do us a huge favour this thursday tho

[@BeegBWolf]

Imo, Thai football has the same major problem as their neighboring countries, like Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Philippines and to some extent Singapore and Brunei. Their FA is filled with corrupt people with short-term visions, and yet a strong sense of rivalry but only against each other. Their main priority is not even the AFC, AFC is not important. What's important is the AFF. As long as they're still on top of their fellow AFF rivals they'll stop there. They're fine with losing to Japan 5 - 0 as long as they still win against Vietnam 1 - 0.

[@rahadityap2375]

​​@@BeegBWolf Yeah lmao, Even in here Indonesia National Team.. Indonesia Team now is undergoes process of completely re formation and restructuration of basically everything about Indonesia Team from Basic Passing,Defending,dribbling, Stamina and agility by Shin Tae Yong since 2020...even still trophy less what every indonesian love about Shin Tae Yong is how he redefined Indonesia Style of Playing and especially, Naturalized or call up Indonesia Born-Dutch player for reforging Indonesia Team Defender especially... he literally reform Indonesia team playing style for actually played real football instead before completely error and long-ball tactic.. Shin Tae Yong strategy or aim have not even prioritized AFF Championship is on agenda.. Instead he want to achieved basic things that everyone dream : Qualified for AFC Asian Cup & Qualified for FIFA World Cup, Which he succes fully made it for Making Indonesia Qualified for AFC Asian Cup 2023 from worst position and even have only one won in four matches and qualified to round 16..He is the only manager to made indonesia Qualified since 2007 and with Qualification process from Lowest position.. And you know what.. Corrupt PSSI or biased football commentator pundits are try to shut him because "Never win AFF" And in reality, They can "Check-In" corrupt their own player with lobby under Shin Tae Yong managerial career... There is literally a whole group on Indonesia FA/PSSI try to diminished Shin Tae Yong

[@MichaelCooney-zh8je]

I lived in China for a number of years. The reason China is crap at football is simply parents do not see a value in them playing sport, after school activities are either more academics or things like Piano lessons, language classes or art class. Sport was kinda seen as something for poor kids, most Chinese athletes are from poor backgrounds. There's also a cultural element which I think lends itself to being good at individual but not team sport's, The school i worked at had no school sports team for example. The people i knew who did play football usually start playing in high school or even university, far too late to actually compete at a high level.

[@luishernandezblonde]

Another issue is China's one-child policy, which was proven so disastrous to China as the mentality of solidarity and teamwork does not exist as Chinese parents are issued of only one kid, which mean that kid has to be pushed to prove his worth. China has ended that policy a few years ago, but will it spark any change is to be seen.

[@ohnoliverhello]

That's same as in India, only people from poor background are able to pursue their dream. Kids from better background are expected to study and not "waste" their time in such sports which doesn't have a large audience and support.

[@abnormalanorak]

Football being seen as a lower-class activity is also common in Turkey, which unlike China or India, is football-mad.

[@zosiazaremba7479]

​@@abnormalanorak Turkey is yet another interesting case. How can a nation of so many, who care about football so much be such an underachiever? You have some interesting players now and after qualifying from a difficult group you can have a decent showing at the Euros, but in my opinion you have the potential to be a powerhouse

[@peeyushdey9926]

at least china is good at olympics

[@ishanp2514]

As a die hard Indian football fan, this has been my gripe for YEARS! Thank you for finally making this video. The whole system of Indian football is ABSURDLY terrible.

[@akshadchavan5528]

So happy to see this on your channel Alfie. As a Indian Football fan, the Asian Cup in Jan was a tragedy and a national joke. Waited for you to talk about it in detail. Keep it coming❤ 🇮🇳

[@yuvrajganguly]

Was it really? India did better than I really expected with holding Australia in the first half, playing decently with Uzbekistan and losing a close match against Syria; all 3 teams better than India, the first two by several magnitudes.

[@ni8crawler1]

I watched all three Asian Cup matches in Qatar and I was utterly disappointed especially against Syria.

[@FireFox-ch2tu]

@@yuvrajganguly Indian attack was non existent, i still don't understand current coach's strategy

[@yuvrajganguly]

@@FireFox-ch2tu I don't want to talk about it after the Afghanistan games....

[@FireFox-ch2tu]

@@yuvrajganguly yeah same shit over and over again

[@aishikpanja3931]

18:15 west bengal has had a multi tiered professional football league since the 1890s. The reason why India didnt have a professional league is that India is a huge country and travelling from, say Mizoram in.the far east to Kashmir in the far north would have been impossible before the 1990s. Mass aviation only took off in India in the 1990s. Similar regional leagues had existed in places like Goa and Mumbai for a long time

[@hmu05366]

Agreed. I think it’s because India is still largely third world

[@Q-hv2cb]

It's funny when the North Korean national team is doing better than the Indian one

[@EaglesofCarthage-bt8kd]

I am Tunisian and I think Alfie should make a video about our state of football now. We just have one of the worst performance ever in AFCON, eliminated at the group stages with only one goal scored, even lost to Namibia which didn't even among top teams in Africa. Yet it is clear that we are in a downward spiral in football, just in the recent World Cup 2022, we lost to Australia which only beat Peru after playoffs show just how bad our football situation is. A lot of corruption and hoarding inside Tunisian Football Federation and we are losing faith, a lot.

[@siamesevodka]

At least you made the World Cup. India never has.

[@johnhonai4601]

You had decent performance in Arab cup though.

[@chrisbennett6260]

@@johnhonai4601 the Arab club wtf what next the black cup

[@muslimcel4581]

Tunisia is a over achiever and punches above its weight with less then 10 million population

[@chrisbennett6260]

@@muslimcel4581 population got nothing to do with it otherwise china and india would be number one

[@paulorocky]

As an Australian I lament the state of the game in my home country. But I guess all I need to do is look at the country of my ancestry (family is from Goa) to feel better about it.

[@davidbowie5023]

Asian football in general is corrupt. Unfair to cast Australia alone when even South Korea and Iran do not do well.

[@aishikpanja3931]

Australia is doing alright . Reaching last 16 in the world cup of a with a population of greater Mumbai with football not even being the top 3 most popular sport

[@rorkeslayer3925]

@@aishikpanja3931I think he's talking more of how domestic Aussie football has imploded.

[@dwanger99]

last 16 was a fluke, grassroots and domestic football is ruined here and we might not even make it to the next world cup@@aishikpanja3931

[@Bbouy1HD]

@@rorkeslayer3925 Sure but the domestic league is finally producing young talent which could be a short term big boost.

[@amitrane3910]

Wow, I have seen so many good youtubers video about Indian Football but this level of detail and research was not found in any other video. Props to u brother

[@BALHAM69]

Definitely a “wild” video from you Alfie This is the type of topics the viewers like Topics such as India national team “bashundhara kings “ and how non league team Clapton CFC formed and brought London oldest stadium interesting information on their women’s team on this too. So this is why players such as former Liverpool youngster Yan Dhanda cannot play for India national team.😮 A good documentary from you and a good watch, thank you 😊

[@7stiano123]

Cricket is easy to play and not physically demanding That's why india play it alot And when they try football which is the exact opposite, they struggle and they go back to cricket

[@manvithharikiran5576]

I think it's our habit to choose convenience with higher returns over something else.

[@YurjaKumarr]

No, India is actually good in few physically demanding games like Hockey, Kabbadi and javelin throwing but the reason for why India is terrible at football is because people don't take an interest in it and hence not many people play it and the potential remains unutilized.

[@sammankesarwani8153]

Play test and 100 mile Ball per hour you get to know how easy it is 😅

[@kingsg2358]

Never expected Alfie to post about Indian football. Well done mate, we need awareness related to Indian football ❤

[@Fligunem]

20:26 this is honestly one of the sweetest parts about all of it, India is such a massive country, that even when they are absolutely shit, 20 thousand people can still make the matches. India is a sleeping giant in so many different ways, but parasitic corruption and leadership has left the country in a mess today

[@PHDiaz-vv7yo]

I’ve been sentient for about 45 years and my first FIFA World Cup was Spain 82. I would love to see my motherland make it to the top table in my lifetime.

[@मृदुलशर्मा]

Never ever I have clicked faster on any video. The corruption, theincompetence, the lack of interest within organisation combines with political interference, superstition, and player respect Indian Football is doomed, given the fact that it was Indian people out of all nationalities in the world that travelled to Qatar the most for the world cup. Baichung Bhutia losing that eletcion is so sad, given that he knows football, he wants to contribute to Indian football and yet he lost election pretty badly to some polotician who don't give a single damn thing about Indian football or football in general.

[@chiantiar]

Soccer is at best the 4th most popular sport here in the US and we still manage to have a final 16 potential team in the WC.

[@That_was_me]

​@261i7USA don't give "F" to boring, ugly, trash sport, Why they suck, Cricket has arrived in the usa last year 😂😂😂

[@blazer9547]

​@user-cr1iz8fw6h I think it's related to stamina and vegetarianism in wide parts of india

[@unclejoe420s]

Lmao then why indian Muslims are not that good either..they eat non veg no problem ​@@blazer9547

[@peeyushdey9926]

lol more than 77% indians are non vegetarian @@blazer9547

[@shreyassinghrathod]

@user-cr1iz8fw6h who told you india ias poor,you dirty people will never have guts to appreciate what india has achieved in 75 years..

[@VinayKumar-ut7zp]

Football requires unity and communication, india has 10000 languages and racism towards each other ...this is the main reason

[@That_was_me]

No one cares

[@VinayKumar-ut7zp]

@@That_was_me about you?

[@That_was_me]

@@VinayKumar-ut7zp hahahhahaahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahajjaha

[@That_was_me]

@@VinayKumar-ut7zp football is 💩

[@VinayKumar-ut7zp]

@@That_was_me your football?

[@jamesthomashtunkyaw5682]

What about Myanmar? My birth country was once Asia's finest football nation, but thanked to the junta, we became so horribly managed even by now.

[@lordvadertheleftie9703]

It's hard to organise a starting 11 when living under a military dictatorship

[@benficademacaufan]

That sparked my memory that Myanmar used to be great in Asian football

[@MikoyanGurevichMiG21]

@@lordvadertheleftie9703or when there's a literal civil war going on now.

[@muslimcel4581]

@@lordvadertheleftie9703 Argentina under a military dictatorship won the world cup

[@lordvadertheleftie9703]

@@muslimcel4581 but Argentina had Mario Kempes. Who do Myanmar have?

[@kspsriram9486]

Thanks man, this video was much needed 🙏♥️

[@tanmoypait462]

Thanks for covering this. I am from football crazy west bengal and its really sad to see the condition of Indian football while we support our favourite foreign club and country in the world cup😢😢

[@ErinStephanie-mf2qk]

The AFC now has eight spots for the 2026 World Cup, and based on current FIFA rankings, not only are India a long way off being even with a chance of qualification, but even China would just fall short, behind the likes of UAE, Qatar (who technically still haven’t successfully qualified for a World Cup), and Iraq. South East Asia is more of a surprise. Baring in mind, some of its nations have successfully qualified for Women’s FIFA World Cups. Just the men letting side down in ASEAN football.

[@theduck2970]

The problem with India is that even the most popular sport in the country, cricket, has issues with poor leadership and foolishness (many apologies to the Indians watching this video but you know it's kinda true) despite being arguably the best country in that sport at the moment. For football, India should be way more powerful than they're supposed to be. They're not hopeless, they're the most powerful team in South Asia and they have had decent results against equivalent or stronger AFC teams but they always seem to fall at the most important hurdles and underperform against teams they should be capable of beating.

[@iscariotpriest1342]

Too true

[@NoLuckJKMY807]

Tbh it's kinda baffling that they are still ranked 117th despite they performed very poorly in recent years. Meanwhile other Asian teams that are arguably better than India such as Malaysia (Ranked 132nd) and Indonesia (Ranked 143rd) are still behind India in the latest world football rankings.

[@shoestring-budget08]

Elo-based ranking is better than the system FIFA use

[@arnabmitra4348]

You are better so when you last qualified for Asia cup ?

[@yuvrajganguly]

Malaysia and Indonesia aren't necessarily better football teams than India; they have hardly even qualified for the Asia Cup.

[@arnabmitra4348]

@@yuvrajganguly Malaysia living in dream world literally qualified for Asia cup after 15 years and Indonesia accidentally beat a underperforming Vietnam side to qualify for round of 16 . The only better team from Asean is Vietnam .Thailand and India are at the same level .

[@segafreak2000]

That's just the usual FIFA fare, people already knew the ranking is trash just from the fact that Belgium kept getting higher spots than anything they actually ever earned, lol.

[@ashutoshnair6410]

It's quite funny that yesterday, I was thinking that a video on the state of Indian football by HITC Sevens would be great. I guess Alfie can see more than everyone sees

[@anirudha4176]

If the 83 World Cup victory didn't happen, India would've probably been bang-average in cricket as well.

[@afrofantom6631]

we would have simply been a field hockey nation

[@davidbowie5023]

Honestly how many people in the world care about cricket?

[@nickvickers3486]

Tonnes of people all over the world care about cricket, it wouldn't have been included in the Olympics if that wasn't the case

[@nikhilsrl]

​@@nickvickers3486A sport played by 10 countries at the highest level. Olympics is not a measure of popularity. How popular are curling, lacrosse, trampoline etc.?

[@davidbowie5023]

@@nickvickers3486 Because of Indian population? You can say that with basketball.

[@Shivaislord123]

Uruguay population 3 million : 2 world cups India population 1.4 BILLION : 0 World cups😭

[@MatheusFernandes-xf4zm]

The world cup is very difficult, but a continental cup is something that any country has an obligation to win once.

[@johnhonai4601]

I don't know what country you belong. But I must say that for a very big, under developed, democratic country it is very hard to develop sports that are already not famous there. Even for a protest, you can't gather people from 3000 km apart.

[@navinthehouse4710]

India did really well in football in the 50s

[@myisl5638]

we ll do somthing bro..

[@Trutifruity]

Ask Uruguay to play cricket let's see

[@chanakyamore9479]

This is the case all the sports federations in the country

[@karannsyt]

Even cricket surpirsingly, it is super corrupt but due to infrastructure and interest we have somehow kept up

[@chanakyamore9479]

@@karannsyt included cricket also

[@Powerhouse08]

The worst thing is that when we, the civilians, raise these issues, we are deemed as anti-nationals. I see no bright future for this country and intend to move to a developed country in the future.

[@paulorocky]

Everyone talks about India’s potential yet so long as these backwards attitudes remain potential it will only ever be. So called “anti-nationals” are not so much a threat as are “anti-rational thinkers” to the future of India.

[@rahulsrinivas3224]

It has nothing to do with nationalism or being anti-national. Praful Patel is from the NCP, which doesn't believe in nationalism. The problem is corruption, not with nationalism.

[@lordvadertheleftie9703]

Anti nationalism is an old German criticism designed to shut down any questionable actions by the government

[@freecoder522]

No body is calling you ANTI NATIONAL . If you think that you are a ANTI NATIONAL then be it. Leave the country and get settled in AFGANISTAN or PAKISTAN to experience real freedom .

[@Powerhouse08]

@@freecoder522 ☝️found the guy who is blinded with nationalism

[@marcusnguginganga2829]

Corruption has messed many countries football wise, it's crazy. I'm Kenyan and we also have corruption issues too but there's also other stuff because generally despite the support and passion for the game, we and East Africa in general rarely do stuff either continentally or otherwise. So I can see so many similarities.

[@chrisbennett6260]

well sort it out its up to you

[@sahtarwars8386]

​@@chrisbennett6260 sure but easier said than done

[@chrisbennett6260]

@@sahtarwars8386 unless you change it nothing changes its only easier said than done when you dont do nothing to reverse course ,change it you can't blame Europeans ,rhe chinese ,indians ,Arabs its in your hands to make it happen and your hands alone ,unless you change it wont change

[@sahtarwars8386]

@@chrisbennett6260 true but again... easier said than done....it's not that simple.

[@hmu05366]

@@chrisbennett6260I agree, it starts with one team

[@abhaykartha7545]

Wonderful Alfie. Finally! Indian Football really is run so poorly.

[@Eimi420]

Bro you forgot Northeast India, a region with a population of roughly only 50 million but the largest contributor to Indian football as a whole. Football is second to none in Northeast India.

[@blazer9547]

They are a different people, more related to east asians

[@Eimi420]

@@blazer9547 I'm a northeastern Indian,yes our culture, language ,facial features,religion are not the same but we're still Indians

[@Anonymous-kd2yy]

​@@blazer9547f off mate they are Indians as you and me

[@AVietnameseWanderingAround]

“Only” 50 million. That’s 2 North Koreas.

[@guguy00]

*Starts video* how can India be worse than the Football Association of Singapore? *15 minutes in* At least the FAS tries

[@AVietnameseWanderingAround]

Nah, they still sucks. Our boys used to play against Singapore in a fully-packed Kallang Stadium, with Singaporean roaring all the way. Now they still play against Singapore, but in an nearly-empty Jalan Besar. India never have footballing culture to begin with, Singapore had it and kill it brutally.

[@guguy00]

​@@AVietnameseWanderingAroundWait till you hear of the Unleash the Roar bollocks they're trying to pull as a pathetic attempt to qualify for the World Cup lol

[@AVietnameseWanderingAround]

@@guguy00 the good folks in Vietnam reported it. It seem that you are using the “foreign scholarship” card to make the fan chill out a little bit. And we were like, bro, we are at this stage a decade ago.

[@BFCbluessupporter]

as a 14 year old Indian whos a huge football fan living in Scotland I don't know why they're doing this there was less than 5 proper football facilities in my state of Karnataka which has a population slightly bigger than the UK

[@divyanshudev]

i can confirm atleast 30% of sport enthusiast don't even know there is a wc qualifier match on 21 nd 26th march in india

[@Segador80]

99%

[@BC-th3mx]

Because they're smart enough to know they're not talented enough to qualify anyway, so why bother following

[@blazer9547]

​@@BC-th3mx exactly 😂

[@osowiecwalking9434]

@@BC-th3mx true. Score line 4-0 , 3-0 .

[@Jeeettttttt]

India is good at sports such as Cricket which like only 5-6 countries play seriously, and even in that, India is like the 4th or 5th best.

[@notanoption21]

Just about a month ago india ranked no1 in all three formats. Only a second team to achieve this feat.

[@nilX2005]

​​@@notanoption21still got cucked by Australia in front of 130,000 fans

[@user-563-e8]

@@nilX2005India has won T20 World Cup 2024 and has also given Australia a crushing defeat. The World Cup was played by 20 countries. Cry more.

[@Jeeettttttt]

Yeah, 20 countries, like Nepal, PNG, Bangladesh and what not!

[@darkhawk6398]

The level of disrespect in thumbnail 💀💀

[@That_was_me]

Indians don't give shit to football, They find boring watching random dudes kicking ball around and get injured in every 15 minutes, and in the end 1-1 0-0 , Cricket is India's sport and also they are going to use cricket as a weapon on geopolitics,

[@SRJ7798]

​@Lalll-qn5fn That's just an opinion. I find it the most exciting sport.

[@SRJ7798]

@Lalll-qn5fn I think you are specifically talking about test matches. But, even then test matches can be very exiting. Not, every match can be a decider based on toss, especially if it's played on a proper wicket. As Michael Vaughan said, a match played across 5 days, is just like two teams of 11 players wresting for dominance in the match not only with technique and strength, but also with wit and Strategy, and it is am unpredictable sport, as anything would happen even on the last day. Look, people tastes are different, and preferences for sports can vary immensely. I don't watch football and I neither like it, but that's just me. Billions of people watch it, so it must be exciting and fun for them. Similarly, you might find cricket boring, which is okay. But, billions of people watch it too, so they might find it exciting as well.

[@SRJ7798]

@Lalll-qn5fn You have made multiple mistakes in your earlier comment, too. "It is far more a pastime than a sport, with only the occasional moment of activity." --- Not, really. Do you think playing for 7-8 hours for five days consecutively is an easy task? It requires significant physical fitness and mental stamina for running between wickets, fielding for long periods, and the mental focus needed throughout the match. "For the majority of the time, it is simply thirteen objects in white standing in a field, kind of like sheepdog trials when the dog didn't show up." --- This is way too ignorant. You have completely ignored the skill involved in bowling, fielding, and strategic positioning of players. There's a lot happening on the field beyond just standing around. And, they move the position every six balls or an over across the field. "The slightest hint of light rain or even a bit too much cloud, and the players scarper off indoors for a bit more rest from standing around with their hands in their pockets." --- Nope, the umpires only stops the play when the rain completely hinders the normal gameplay. Too much cloud is actually good for swing bowling, why would the fielding side discard their advantage? "Even when there is a result, the deterioration of the pitch over five days means the result is frequently decided by little more than who wins the toss on the first day and gets the best of the conditions." --- Nope, winning the toss can be crucial, but the skilled teams can still win. And, the conditions aren't always beneficial or decisive enough that a team would win regardless. Secondly, you seem to a have a problem with game going on for 5 days, you also seem to have a problem with the match finishing early. "They really ought to stop there and save everyone a lot of boredom." --- This again is just your subjective opinion. If it was as boring as you described, why would anyone watch it?

[@SRJ7798]

@Lalll-qn5fn Again, "Nobody cares about cricket outside of South Asia" --- So? Humans are complex creatures , and it's impossible for everyone to love the same thing. If South Asia prefers something else, they have every right to like what they want.

[@ronaldmadziro5679]

Wow,this was a huge article. Alfie goes deep in his research. Football and politics and corruption all seem mashed up together and stuck with glue.

[@eren9001]

In Turkey there are also many stories of bullying corruption and similar things of players that made it but had to fight the system instead of getting supported and uplifted by it. Kerem Aktürkoğlu for example who almost gave up football and was loaned out to the 4th division but now is 2nd captain of Galatasaray and national player. Many talents like this get wasted and never make it. Turkey always has several national team players who are born in Germany with 3 million Turks compared to Turkey with a population over 80 million

[@lordvadertheleftie9703]

It's because the German born players have come up through a proper footballing structure, without the fear of corruption

[@Chippychips8-2]

Aktürkoğlu is soo underrated.

[@Arshi69]

I am Turkish Iranian, and the state of Turkish football is sad and pathetic specially from outside when I came to visit Turkey couple of times, I barely even saw training pitches and facilities for youth to play the sport, never mind an active youth football system. The German Turks unfortunately gave us Turks an excuse to not invest in our youth and the league only clearly cares about the score than quality or playing style

[@LibertepourlesIranienset-kh3ur]

Same in Iran, except for the fact that we are AFC member not UEFA. Had we been in the UEFA, doubt we could have done well either.

[@abnormalanorak]

You should also touch upon the subject of about 80-90 per cent of football fans in Turkey supporting three certain clubs from a certain city and its underlying reasons, as well. As a football romantic who supports his local side (in my case, Göztepe), I find this quite appalling. I can rant about this for hours.

[@shoestring-budget08]

Population size doesn't equal high talent pool. Look at 3 of the 5 most populous nations which are ranked low in FIFA rankings (China, India, and Indonesia)

[@theoggunner]

Atleast Indonesia showed some sort of fight at this Asian cup, not commenting about China’s performance

[@stackhat8624]

Then again not since Uruguay won the cup in 1950 has a small nation won it. Brazil, Italy, Germany, Argentina, France, England, Spain are not small countries.

[@davidbowie5023]

@@stackhat8624 But the US and China have failed to win a World Cup, right? And they are far more populous than all the eight combined. Only Brazil is really populous enough to talk about whereas the remaining seven are small countries compared to Brazil.

[@T.E.S.S.]

it equals a **large** talent pool, ie a large number of players to choose from. and statistically, the more players there are, the more talented ones there should be.

[@soundscape26]

Technically speaking the largest the population the largest the talent pool. But football has to be popular in the first place... and the infrastructures good enough.

[@ayush1ism]

Thank god you made this video!!! Even I an Indian had no clue about the extent of how incompetent the AIFF is!!

[@blazer9547]

It's an India problem not aiff. India is poor at wide variety of sports.

[@EliasRoy]

@@blazer9547 Who asked?

[@EliasRoy]

@@blazer9547 All these westerners jump into anything whenever is talked about India 🤡🤡🤡

[@takshak_dawda]

Excellent video. I'm so happy and sad at the same time that someone's talking about this. Whenever I try to bring this up with my fellow Indians, their only response is, "But we're a cricket nation!" I don't even want to get started on the failures of the Indian Cricket Team. And the new gen is all into football. In an ideal world, a country with the world's highest population should be hosting FIFA world cups but here we are, not even able to solve the grassroot problems 😢 These things are exactly what inspired me to write my novel about the journey of three Indian men and their dream of attending a football World Cup final! I mean we're passionate supporters of the Premier League Clubs. People have gone to riot over Messi vs Ronaldo 😅 But I dream that someday we'll realize our tremendous potential 💪

[@SRJ7798]

"New generation is all into football" --- I highly doubt it. It may be the case in your specific state. I don't see any difference in the new generation than the older one. Everyone is still into cricket. Though, I have seen a rising of interest in chess.

[@takshak_dawda]

@@SRJ7798 Yeah, chess has become a huge thing. I mean I am in my 30s now and not everyone in my 20s had a Premier League club they supported. But today, every GenZ keeps a tab on their fav team in EPL.

[@SRJ7798]

@@takshak_dawda And, that shows. India has the highest rate of new grandmasters and international masters popping up. There has been a rise in football viewership, but still it's mostly specific to certain parts of the country. If the team plays well, the popularity might boost though.

[@aishikpanja3931]

chess is great, but its not a sport. If chess is a sport, mathematics olympiads or IITJEE should also be called sports@@SRJ7798

[@hmu05366]

I appreciate your comment but you’ll do nothing football wise. The problem with India is Indians

[@the_one_the_only4651]

(Day 6) Make a video on Liechtensteiner football and the perpetual struggles of the national team, the unique status of the Liechtenstein Cup (the only path of Liechtensteiner clubs into Europe) and why the landlocked microstate of only 38,000 people is the only UEFA nation without its own football league 🇱🇮

[@FootballnewsindiaIn]

Absolute banger of a video. The amount of research you have done is amazing. The sport is in shambles here mainly because of the administration, but that doesn't stop the acceptance or growth of football in India. It's picking up on its own with whatever meager resources that are available now, and that is for the men's and women's part.

[@beyondofyourthinking3646]

Football is 2nd most popular and loved sport in india , there is a very big football fans in india . India has a lot of good talents but politics destroyed everything , it's very sad for us Indian football fans

[@lyyte-s4y]

8:45 interesting that you bring up Chung’s name here. Do you know that his cousin is the current president of Korean Football Association? Would love to watch the deep dive on KFA, which is throwing national team players under the bus to save their president Chung Mong-gyu’s reputation after Korea’s surprisingly poor run and exit from Asian Cup brought up how he meddled in the manager selection process under the spotlight again.

[@kumbaya69421]

"Football is not popular in India" is such a shameless excuse. Money isn't even the problem at all. The cricket board BCCI makes so much money in profit, they could easily tranfer some to indian youth development teams.

[@Trutifruity]

Why would they . Cope 😂 Cricket always ❤

[@OcEleven]

​@@Trutifruitystill can't win a World Cup at home💀

[@adityadey7340]

Y tf would bcci transfer their own money .That doesn't make any sense lol Indian football association needs to find some other ways

[@kumbaya69421]

@@adityadey7340 because helping each other isn't a bad thing? Football has far more exposure then cricket will eve have. The BCCI should consider it as an investment, not a chore.

[@iameverywhere8551]

​@@kumbaya69421what investment actually??😂 BCCI is here to promote cricket in India not other sports

[@lewisbrooks3399]

Love this video and all your content! Would you please do a deep dive into how well Luxembourg are doing? They are close to qualifying for their first tournament and have set up amazing infrastructure after 18 years ago being ranked 195th

[@LibertepourlesIranienset-kh3ur]

You think India is that bad? Then you haven't seen what's going on with Iran. Football is huge in Iran and everyone there love football, but Iran is one of the most corrupt countries in Asia and among 40 most corrupt worldwide. Currently Iran is having a golden generation, but they have won nothing since 2010s and recently failed to reach the final of the Asian Cup again, this is despite we beat Japan 2-1. In World Cup, we qualified six times, yet our record is even worse compared to Saudi Arabia and Australia (which also qualified the same amount of times as us). Meanwhile, corruption is so rampant in Iran and most Iranian clubs are run by members of the IRGC, which robbed money from Iranian people to profit for their wars abroad. That's where we are now, unfortunately. India is a cricket-addicted nation, so people are likely to forgive their incompetence. But Iran? We just simply don't know how to explain.

[@valleyshrew]

Ranked 20th in the world atm, higher than I expected.

[@luishernandezblonde]

@@valleyshrew Iran's position doesn't reflect their reality, which is an inflated team. The reality is Iranian players are only worth for second tier leagues in top 5 of Europe. But Iran isn't a democracy whatever.

[@casino6058]

Iran are definitely perennial underachievers but c'mon man, so many other countries in Asia have it worse (including India), at least Iran are still able to consistently qualify for World Cups and has seen some improvements lately being competitive there

[@luishernandezblonde]

@@casino6058 the difference is India has no popular football culture. Iran has. To see Iran performs worse than Australia is enough to tell.

[@shawklan27]

Well that's depressing

[@Archer89201]

As an Indian the main problem is corruption and nepotism. Even at grass root level it's a problem in selection and there is lack of infrastructure.

[@jithuabrahamalex4573]

Thanks for making a video on indian football alfie

[@distantfuture]

Great video that really brings the wider societal failings of the country to light too. Factual, concise & eye-opening.

[@dhananjaidhariyal6618]

Few thoughts on this. 1-Indian society doesn't promote sports culture..parents train their kids from early to join engineering and medical colleges 2-Those who want to do sports can only do so with government support as traditional systems have died 3-Government will rather want athletes to win gold medals in olypics to get cheap credit rather than invest in expensive grassroots development 4-Cricket became popular partly because of world cup victory but mostly because after liberalisation of economy public TV channels broadcasted cricket for free.and cricket is more suitable for hot Indian climate than football 5-China promoted football to show they can compete with the world not only in manufacturing but also in sports 6-May be Indian political leaders also go the china way and that is not the only way 7-If somehow ISL becomes a popular league for that it will have to compete with IPL ..dip in viewership will discourage isl clubs to invest in local infrastructure development 8-A new sports policy by government to boost sporting culture will benifit overall economy also ..and that is the only way...

[@jalex9917]

AIFF is Ruining Football in India 😢🤦

[@SirNoobWulf]

Oh you missed the best part. AS of this day, we don't have any promotion relegation between our 1st and second division. My club languishes at the bottom of ISL every year, but its all fine, its not like we need to improve or anything

[@karannsyt]

Haven't watched the video but I know it's going to give me permanent brain damage, this country is corrupt to its core and it's a miracle we are even as good as we are in one team sport being cricket

[@ankitsingh4612]

Because there is no competition in cricket. And whole money gets pumped into it.

[@That_was_me]

​@@ankitsingh4612if there's no competition, why isn't India winning wc 😂?

[@ankitsingh4612]

@@That_was_me winning a wc in cricket is a game of luck. Hardly 3-4 country play cricket which are contenders of wc. Its not lile fifa where there is 5 knock outs.

[@That_was_me]

@@ankitsingh4612 106 countries play cricket and cricket is not all about hitting six and taking wicket

[@ankitsingh4612]

@@That_was_me even 150 countries play basketball too. But that does not mean competition for olympic gold is between 106 countries. USA takes it everytime because of NBA And the craze it has for basketball. Registering for a sport and being a contender for winning is altogether a different thing. Cricket has only 5 teams. And structure of tournament in such a way that it favours INDIA.

[@Hiccup_-gz8nm]

Alfie mate you are cranking out the bangers. Really appreciate it!

[@PontiacBandit902]

I thought this video was going to be about the Canada Soccer Association (CSA) 😂. Speaking of which, we need a video about how shambolic my country's federation is when we are two years out from co-hosting a World Cup. We can't even get the Canada's Premier League to 10 teams. Then those league owners own a private company called "Canadian Soccer Business". CSB gives CSA $3 million a year for the media and sponsorship rights to the CSA for 10yrs regardless of how much money the CSB makes. That on top of top CSA officials resigning or backing out of positions they agreed to take.

[@dawn_alex]

Bro, the amount of information in this vid is amazing. How do u get this much info, even the tiny bits. Keep up the good work. 👍🏼✌️

[@nimitshah1684]

Dude, Im indian and from the US, my parents immigrated from India and my dads thought process i shit you not is "we aren't athletic enough". He thinks that Indians cannot compete with other countries becuase we arent athletic enough. It is a common thought among a bunch of us and it is truly sad. They would rather focus on cricket which doesn't involve as much movement and studying

[@blazer9547]

So you're American. Indian is nationality not ethnicity. Have you seen north easterners. They look east asian

[@BladimirButin]

I believe that is true tbh. Look in UK it’s the same south Asians like Indians Pakistani etc don’t do well in football they play a lot when they are young in amateur level but never really make it professional. Some South Asians in the UK tried to bring up the racist excuse as to why they don’t do well in Football in UK it literally makes no sense. Football is that one sport in the world where if you’re good no matter your race you will make it, blacks in UK is a good example of that and also blacks and Arabs in France. Theres no excuse for south Asians I think they are not just fit for football.

[@CuginosPizza]

What your dad said was not entirely incorrect and could apply to other Asian countries. At least for his generation. Nutrition is a real thing. It's hard to develop talents when the talents don't have the proper nutrition to fully develop physically and mentally. However, it doesn't mean that it's hopeless. Look at South Korea. The younger generations are several centimeters taller than their parents, all due to having enough quality food to eat. Kim Min-jae would not have been able to exist in pre-industrialized South Korea.

[@BladimirButin]

@@CuginosPizza Diet and nutrition is a smalll factor other wise the south Asians based in UK would have made it by now but even they aren’t good enough they can’t even make lower English leagues

[@TriathlonMadeEasy]

I played club level football at a very decent level in Mumbai, India & I can tell you most of the talented players quit football to pursue other careers (mostly academic) before they turn 18 You can't afford to play football unless you have generational wealth or are very very talented enough to secure the few dozen decent club level oppurtunities For the rest - it's just not advisable to keep on playing without any meaningful financial incentive

[@MISSINGSITTERS]

It's sad how in South America and Africa football helps even the poorest children to become successful in life but in India only the rich can become footballers 😢

[@knight6577]

Don't worry HITC, kalyan Chaubey is cooking for a part 2 of this video

[@koustabpradhan4462]

As along time follower of this channel and an inhabitant of the most football crazy region of India, very happy to see the inaptitude of AIFF being addressed. With that said, ISL started as an exciting prospect for me, we had players like Materazzi, Nesta, Robbie Keane, Malouda, Roberto Carlos, Gudjohnsen, Ljungberg, Pires, Trezeguet, Del Piero, Anelka, Forlan, Berbatov, Lucio, David James, Arne Riise, Mutu (most of them in their late thirties) to name a few playing in the league along with coaches like Zico, Roberto Carlos, Materazzi, Zambrotta; enough star power to garner attention of the not so football crazy people as well. Not only that, but also young players like Stiven Mendoza went on to play in the French ligue 1 as well. The problem was that they did create new teams from scratch instead of taking over old Indian football teams which already had huge fanbase. For instance Kolkata Derby regularly attracted around 100000 people, but none of Mohunbagan and East Bengal were included when ISL started. The huge fanbase, instead of supporting a corporate franchise ATK , would rather support their own clubs EB or MB. Also, Indian football fans are not homogeneously distributed all over the country, regions like Bengal/Kolkata, Goa, Kerala has the bulk of football fanatics and the biggest football clubs as well. Had they took over the I league teams and added some new teams from major cities, the league would have been a much bigger spectacle. P.S.: The inclusion of Dilan Markandey, Sarpreet Singh, Harmeet Singh, Yann Dhanda, Danny Batth could have made the INT a regional superpower.

[@luishernandezblonde]

You should make a video about Vietnam's football paranoia. I found that an unwritten football policy in Vietnam demanded that a player can only represent Vietnam national team if they have ancestry, must be at least fluent in Vietnamese language, and is common to Vietnamese culture and custom. This is why despite many naturalised players in Vietnam now, only three of them are able to make it to the national team, two are goalkeepers that have to endure a massive language, history and cultural training programs to be able to represent the country. This policy has alienated Vietnam from the rest of Southeast Asia by imposing language, history and culture education, something not even Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and the Philippines would do and reactions has been divisive ever since, especially when you look at the 2023 AFC Asian Cup where Vietnam was the worst performed of all Southeast Asian sides while Indonesia and Thailand achieved a lot of successes with their newly naturalised players. This policy, I believe, might have something to do with a friendly between this country and Brazil U-23 in 2008, where a Brazilian naturalised goalkeeper refused to sing the anthem of Vietnam, causing a lot of resentment to even now among the populace. This policy is either considered Bilbao-esque or toxic nationalism, for us to decide.

[@robertotampioc7318]

Don’t include Philippines in your topic because we don’t like football…

[@j.y.8054]

Rare Vietnam win. Footballing should be about identity. Unlike with the citizenship merchants of other SEA nations

[@AVietnameseWanderingAround]

Vietnam actually consider the national team the way it should be, not an immigration advertisement. We are not racist, but this is supposed to be a team that represents Vietnamese. That’s the only reason Vietnamese fan watch the national team. When that’s taken out in trade for short-term results, there’s no reason left.

[@khanhnguyentrieu1752]

I’m from Vietnam, and even though it’s sad, what you’ve just said is all true. I’m going to cut it short for you: our policy is a mixture of Bilbao-esque style and ultranationalism. However, the effect of the latter is always greater. Nationalism is super weird in Vietnam as the majority of people (myself not included) tend to overhype and overate Vietnam’s history and achievements (can’t deny that we have a great history, but not to the level that these people always brag about) and look down on other nation and people. That kind of sentiment has made it way into the mind of officials at the nation’s football governing body, who, as you said, will be very skeptical about calling up a naturalized player, since they fear a cancel movement from the public if they make such decision. Only a handful number of foreign-born players have played for the national team, and with a current squad like this one (either old, injured or too bad), I doubt that our team could make a different in the near future. I agree that preserving the national and cultural identity is important, but if it comes down to the point of “rejecting foreign influence, only accepting pure and unspoiled domestic value”, then we’ll get getting our assess beaten up by maybe Cambodia in the future.

[@beno1129]

To be fair, if the Brazilian-born player was representing the nation of Vietnam willingly (nobody put a gun to his head), then yes the Vietnamese citizens would be annoyed that he didn't sing their national anthem out of devotion to another country. They would regard him as a mercenary. I wouldn't consider this as toxic patriotism, and indeed I think that it is the player who has a misguided sense of nationalism. Show some gratitude to the country that you are using to launch your national football career.

[@p_booth_fan]

The most surprising thing about this entire video on Indian football, is that it took just over 30 minutes before the first woman was sexually assaulted.

[@withersz16]

Shocking part about this is that in my Nigerian school, we have a lot of good Indian footballers

[@MatheusFernandes-xf4zm]

School in Nigeria or a Nigerian school in another country? I'm curious, please explain.

[@withersz16]

@@MatheusFernandes-xf4zm school in Nigeria: Ibadan International School

[@mattylamb9194]

@@withersz16 from kerala region of India oiginally?

[@withersz16]

@@mattylamb9194 no

[@willmate5105]

its great to know about all this in detail as the media would never take any interest in these, thank you for the work

[@AnnubrataRoy]

Alfie thank you so much for recognising Mohun Bagan and it's fans who protested against those Three ATK words who put our Mother like club in an indentity crisis Joy Mohunbagan Alfie 👏👏

[@afrofantom6631]

alfie like mohun bagan thoda thoda

[@LordANIK]

I commend your thorough exploration of the current state of the Indian football ecosystem, even though it’s not a source of pride. 👍

[@ME-pb2gf]

Doesn't matter how big your pool of potential players if the population is physically inferior. Just look at India's Olympic winnings history. After that look at India's Special Olympics records.

[@davidbilla8063]

Naah anyone can achieve all they need good diet, training facilities and sponsorship

[@UtkarshSingh-hd5yn]

The three nation that run the olympics drug test also has the most medal I think you can imply further

[@gregoryvnicholas]

Look at India's pathetic performance at the Summer Olympics since independence. Why should football be different?

[@That_was_me]

We don't care about boring sport,

[@astropartify3677]

We 100% deserve all of the criticism..

[@That_was_me]

We don't care about boring sport 😂😂

[@Sumit_Girhe]

​@@That_was_me cope

[@justaguy2023]

​@@That_was_me i am one hundred percent certain that your rage baiting people into an argument.

[@TheKmanKVSC]

Right now, INDIA is world #4 in hockey. A sport with high level competition from Europe and Australia. So it makes no sense to me that we can do well there, but struggle so much in football which arguably requires less infrastructure than hockey and cricket.

[@That_was_me]

Football is 💩

[@edwin.josephh]

​@@That_was_meCry harder lol🤣

[@That_was_me]

@@edwin.josephh football 💩

[@hampter4995]

Even countries with abject poverty and rampant corruption like Mali, Senegal and Cameroon are footballing powerhouses in their own right. All india have to do is make sure the tons of talent in their population gets identified and given access to professional football at a young age. The J league model should be taken as an example for rapidly professionalizing football. While Japan has the population smaller than some states in india they are beating teams like germany. While countries like croatia produce bonafide global superstars like Zvonimir Boban, Luka Modrić Ivan Rakitic and Perisic while having a population comparable to the 15th largest city in india. A good professional league pyramid with 15-20 teams in a division with a season lasting 8-10 months should be established. With youth teams of those clubs competing with each other in a league of their own.

[@buenaventurasdog2797]

USA should follow J-League's model as a next step. MLS has too many teams already and now lower divisions should be a priority. Mexico should follow J-League's model to get away from their league trying to copy MLS

[@mattylamb9194]

@@buenaventurasdog2797 - I suppose vast size of countries such as USA and India does hinder this process, (same as Saudia Arabia and Canada for example as well incidentally, even though their populations are much smaller). But yeah, promotion and relegation is so important

[@arghyachakravorty1221]

AIFF’s a menace and horrifically pathetic. You know the situation’s bad when the body, the organisation that’s supposed to manage football and is entrusted with the responsibility to put together a team of capable football players to represent the nation and adequately manage the talented resource we possess; is just so political and incompetent.

[@lordvadertheleftie9703]

Igor Stimac from Derby County is the Indian coach? He was a tough guy, can't imagine he's happy that a psychic is picking his starting 11

[@hemchudaeshm4235]

This is what happens when one sports becomes a buisness and other is thrown into trash

[@chileanhussar2659]

How about the CONCACAF-CONMEBOL merger in question? People think that South Americans are quite happy with Brazil and Argentina but I doubt we are that okay. Most South American nations do not have sufficient financial power to rival Brazil and Argentina, as such they are sidelined by the two South American nations as football successes increasingly crippled away from those remainders. It's the reason why most South Americans (except Brazilians and Argentines) are unhappy and fuelled our desires to merge with the weaker CONCACAF to keep us competitive.

[@zosiazaremba7479]

It would have been beneficial for football in USA, Mexico and Canada too. Tougher World Cup qualifiers mean it's harder for them to qualify, but in a long run that would make them stronger. Of course, qualifying means money so their football federations probably won't be so keen on the idea, but I hope they make it happen

[@MdSazidRahman-v7c]

🙏 Please make a video on the other SAAF nation, Bangladesh 🇧🇩. Country’s football association chairman is one of the most corrupt people in football. He is also the current president of the SAAF. He rigs the chairman election every term and has become a dictator of sort in the football part of the country. This country used to have rich footballing culture with a derby match that used to get more than 50k+ spectators every game. Supporters used to riot for their teams. Now, not a single person goes to the stadium to watch a football game. Please bring the story of Bangladesh’s football and it’s BFF dictator to the whole world.

[@Footyboy77797]

Your research about the topic is top notch

[@jonathanswift974]

Wow in the 1st 2 mins, cricket isn't a sport its a pastime. Amazing, thats peak Alfie there.

[@lucaslonchampt613]

Day 25 of asking a "What Went Right for Stade Brestois?" Video This is currently, by far, the best season in club history, one which could result in their first ever qualification for Europe in over 70 years of existence. There's a fascinating story to tell, from going bankrupt and slowly climbing back, to various great names that played there such as Ribéry, Makélélé or José Luis Brown, to the story of the Brest president going up against the Colombian drug cartel. Plus, you can have a lot of Brest related puns. India always feels like they have so much potential, but are unable to tap on it