No permission or lack of money to play barefoot: When India missed a rare opportunity to play in the World Cup

 

The Football World Cup is going to start on November 20 in Qatar. After this competition between the 32 best teams playing football around the world, it will be decided who is the king of the football world. According to FIFA, the governing body of football around the world, the World Cup, which will begin on November 20, will be watched by about five billion people live and through screens. This number will be one billion more than the 2018 World Cup viewers. The World Cup in Qatar is the 22nd World Cup football event overall. But there is no enthusiasm among the Indian sports fans for this game, as till now India too like Pakistan has not participated in this tournament even once. Although India never made it to the Football World Cup, very few fans of the game would know that there was a time when India could make it to the Football World Cup. It will be hard to believe but the fact is that the Indian football team was going to participate in the World Cup played in Brazil 72 years ago in 1950 but the Bujo team could not participate in it. 

How did India get a chance to participate in the World Cup?

 In fact, World Cup football could not be held in 1942 and 1946 due to the Second World War.  In 1950, the World Cup was about to take place after 12 years of waiting.  Only 33 countries agreed to play in the qualifying round for the World Cup in BraziIndia was placed in the qualifying Group 10 along with Burma (Myanmar) and the Philippines.  But Burma and the Philippines withdrew their names from the qualifying round That is, India had qualified for the World Cup competitions without playing.  The start date of the World Cup competitions was not far away and the Indian team was going to get a chance to showcase its achievements in the Football World Cup for the first time. d.l.e.

India's group in the 1950 World Cup. 

When the draft was held for the final round of the 1950 World Cup football, India was placed in the third pool along with Sweden, Italy, and Paraguay.

 What would have happened if India had participated in this tournament?

 In this regard, the late football journalist Novi Kapadia wrote in the World Cup Football Guidebook that "At that time, Paraguay's team was not very strong, Italy did not include eight of its main players in the team due to discipline." The condition of the team was so bad that coach Vittorio Pozo resigned after reaching Brazil.

The Swedish team was in a very good position against India, in that sense, India could have finished second in the group but the team needed to take advantage of this great opportunity."

What was the condition of the Indian football team?

In the 1990s, the Indian football team did not play many matches at the international level, but the Indian team had a reputation as a good playing team. A glimpse of this was also shown by the Indian team in the 1948 London Olympic Games. India lost to a strong team like France by a mere margin of 1-2. During this era, the Indian football team was trying to make its mark due to its forward and dribbler play. Players like Ahmed Khan, S Raman, MA Sattar, and S Metal were the masters of the game. All these Indian players came to London Olympics to play football barefoot. However, right-back Taj Muhammad played wearing boots.

Why the team could not participate in Brazil's World Cup?

There is no clear answer as to why the Indian football team did not participate in the 1950 World Cup.

However, as per the official reason given by the All India Football Federation (AIFF), the team withdrew due to differences in team selection and insufficient time for practice. But there have been many debates over the years, the most talked about being that Indian players wanted to play barefoot football and FIFA did not approve it. But apart from Navi Kapadia, a recent book by senior sports journalist Jaideep Basu doesn't give much credence to this cause either. In the book 'Box to Box: 75 Years of the Indian Football Team' edited by Jaydeep Basu, it is written that "There was no question of FIFA objecting to Indian players playing barefoot."Referring to the seven octogenarians who competed in the London Olympics, Jaideep Basu wrote that "seven octogenarians of this team had spiked boots in their travel bags and it was a matter of player choice."In fact, this was the era when football players preferred to play with thick bandages on their feet and by 1954 this trend was also present in many other countries of the world.

Was it the lack of money?

One of the reasons for India's non-participation in the World Cup is economic. But this claim also does not seem to be true. Jaideep Basu states in his book that there was a cost issue for the team to reach Brazil, but it was resolved. He wrote that at that time the three state-level football associations of India had assured to contribute towards the expenses. Not only this, Navi Kapadia states in his book that in March and April, Brazil approached the Indian Football Association and assured to pay most of the team's expenses. According to Navi Kapadia's book, there were two reasons for Brazil's confidence, one was that teams from Scotland, France, Turkey, and Czechoslovakia had also withdrawn their names from the Football World Cup. And secondly, Brazil wanted the monuments of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. According to Jaydeep Basu's book, India announced the World Cup squad on 16 May 1950. According to India's proposed schedule, the Indian team will leave for Brazil on June 15 and India's first match was to be played against Paraguay on June 25. But what happened next, Jaydeep Basu calls it the biggest unsolved mystery in the world of Indian football.

However, books by Navi Kapadia and Jaydeep Basu show that neither the Indian footballers nor the football authorities of the time understood the significance of the occasion. In fact, at that time the Indian hockey team had become the champion team of the Olympic Games and the ultimate measure of popularity for every player was the same. In such a situation, the Indian football team focused on better performance in the Olympic Games for both the players and the people running the game. Apart from this, the 1951 Asian Games were also scheduled to be held in Delhi. As the host team, India aimed to do well in this one. It is important to mention here that till 1950 the football world cup was not as famous in the world as it was in later years. Then it was a sports tournament devoid of glamour.

Ignorance of laws  

It also appears that the Indian football authorities may have taken such a decision due to a lack of knowledge of the rules. In fact, the players participating in the Football World Cup used to get the tag of professional players at that time. The fact that the athletes were professionals meant that they were not allowed to participate in the Olympics and the Asian Games. Because in those days the players participating in these tournaments were called amateurs. There were loopholes to this rule, however, as Hungary, Russia and other socialist countries claimed that players participating in the Football World Cup were members of the military, claiming that members of the military could not be professionals. But probably the Indian football officials didn't know that much then. The Indian Football Association may have decided not to participate in the 1950 World Cup for fear of being excluded from the Asian Games and the Olympic Games. But the decision turned out to be a blunder that has haunted Indian sports fans for the past 72 years.