While football is considered as the most popular sport in the world, it hardly receives any attention in India. A common question that often pops up in our mind, "Why is football not so popular in India?" When cricket is treated as a religion and being played at every corner of the country, football is unfortunately quite neglected here. Apart from Kerala, Goa and West Bengal, the whole country lacks of football culture and doesn't even try to promote its potential talent. When countries like Brazil, Argentina, Portugal etc. have taken this sport to another level, India's football scenario is truly very disappointing. So, let's find out the answers. Popularity of cricket: In India, cricket is more of an emotion than a sport. While India's success at various international tournaments (example: winning the Cricket World Cup twice) has made cricket extremely popular among the masses, this country is also home to a number of world class cricketers such as Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli etc. who inspire thousands of Indians to play cricket. This unmatchable popularity of cricket in this country has overshadowed football along with all the other sports. Lack of funding: This is a very important point as Indian football team often lacks of funding. This sport requires huge amount of money, but there are not many people who are willing to sponsor for it. In fact, a lot of aspiring footballers stop moving forward with their passion as they don't get any financial support. This is a major issue which the government and other powerful people need to think about. Lack of Infrastructure: This is a major issue which all the football lovers need to be vocal about. Unlike cricket, India does not have any equipped infrastructure for football. Most of the stadiums in our country don't possess the standard that is set by FIFA. In fact, there's not even enough training centres where the young footballers can practice and enhance their skills. Lack of marketing and media coverage: Poor marketing and lack of media coverage is another factor why football is so unpopular in India. In fact, we don't get to see most of the matches of Indian football team on Television. Unless football receives enough media coverage and is better marketed, it's not going to be popular in India. Lack of glamour and money: In India, cricket is the second industry (after cinema) where one can achieve both glamour and money. But most of the football players earn a very minimum amount of money and don't receive enough recognition. This is why many Indian kids, despite of being extremely talented, don't want to become a professional footballer. But now, we can have some hope as ISL is doing a wonderful job to create more awareness about football in India.
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