From being called the sleeping giants of football to the now star -studded ISL, Indian Football has seen its ups and downs . Through all that, one man stands tall – Dr Shaji Prabhakaran, who is now the Regional Development Officer for South & Central Asia at FIFA. The following are excerpts from our conversation with him.
At the age of 21, when Dr Shaji Prabhakaran was at the peak of his playing years, he suffered a knee injury that ended his career as a player. But that didn’t end his journey in football. Picking himself up, he went on to do his UGC Fellowship in Football Research on the topic, why Indian Football was not doing well. From there he went to coach and later run the Chandigarh Football
Academy, he took up various positions in the AIFF and AFC, implemented grassroots and youth development programs in India, started his own football consultancy and is currently working with FIFA. The FWD team recently caught up with Dr Shaji Prabhakaran to talk about his journey into FIFA and his passion for the Beautiful Game; Football.
You got your first break when you were selected as a coach in the Chandigarh Football Academy. Was coaching something you wanted to do and how was your experience during the tenure?
I never really wanted to be a coach, but it was a stepping stone into football administration. Plus, I had some experience in coaching. The pay was minimal but I really wanted to be part of this, so I took it. The academy had selected kids from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The head-coach was Harvinder Singh, an ex-international player and one of the best-left footers India has
produced. He had given me full freedom to work and we produced fabulous results. By 2003, we had seven of our boys playing for India at one go. It was very special because the children were from rural backgrounds, most of them were poor. They were not highly talented but we developed them through our programmes. They were better in their age group than kids from any part of the country. This was due to our level of commitment and the training and exposure we could give them.
It was after this that you got to work with the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). What was your focus during that time?
In 2004, AIFF offered me the position to manage their grassroots and youth development activities. I was ready to take that up without even discussing the salary. I was the first professional to work for them. I used to manage the entire national team, the age-groups team, the grassroots, women’s football and coach education. The entire responsibility came to me. It had given me a lot of exposure and experience. In 2005, AFC appointed me as the head of Vision India Project. I was fortunate enough to go to Norway on AFC representation to attend the Grassroots Course. This
helped me plan and initiate grassroots programmes in India.
Currently, you are working with FIFA as the Regional Development Officer for South & Central Asia. How did your association with FIFA begin?
By 2009, I had moved out of the AIFF to look for other opportunities. I had started my own football management company with one of my friends but we were not getting the projects we wanted. It was at that time the FIFA offer came in 2011. It consisted of development-oriented work and the profile was good. I would be working with the best organisation in football. I began managing the FIFA projects in South and Central Asia. I was able to travel and work in different countries such as Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Nepal to name a few.
The Under-17 FIFA World Cup is going to be hosted in India? How did that come about?
India wanted it and our leadership wanted it to happen here. India deserves it. This would be a turning point for us as it’s the first time India is playing the World Cup as the host. We will be able
to see the level of talent of the best in the world. I’m sure that our boys will do well.
Talking about doing well, do you think that Indian Football would have fared better had it not been for the popularity of Cricket?
We don’t have to compete with cricket. India is such a big country that we could easily have 10 – 20 sports. Our focus should be to develop football by building a strong foundation – it will take 10 to 15 years to the see the results. Already, in many cities, our football matches are filled to capacity. We see more kids playing football than any other sports.
Does the demography of India affect our ability to play football in any way in terms of physical attributes?
I don’t see that as a problem. The problem is till four years ago there wasn’t any real development work happening in India. The work has only started and it will take time for these grassroots players to come up. I don’t think it is because we are physically weak. Worldwide, children are introduced to the game very early, even at the age of four. Everyone gets an opportunity to play and the best get picked up. They are playing in good conditions and with good coaches. And here too things are shaping up. Things will be very different in 10 years time. Most states in India have players with good basic nutrition and physical profiles. But the problem is football can’t be learned in a few hours. There are development programmes which have been initiated; it will have the impact and the numbers will grow. We are doing different projects with the state to help develop their capacity, in terms of managing, marketing and technical aspects so they have the right coaches, right facilities and programmes.
In a way, the problem lies with the lack of awareness and systems for sports in India. How are these structural defects being addressed and what role can the government play to change this?
We are trying to build capacity at the state level to manage football in a professional way. We are also trying to replicate this at the district and village level. I’m sure that in the next five years, there will be a good network from the national level to the district to the village level. The pyramid structure needs to be strengthened. At every level of the pyramid, there need to be efficient people working with effective programmes. The government can play a great role here. It has to see how sports will help the society to grow. Not only to produce champion sportsmen but to ensure people are physically healthy, emotionally strong, and socially integrated.
If they invest in sports, they can see the health costs related to lifestyle diseases going down. People will be much healthier and children will be able to channelize their energy into more constructive things. The Government needs to bring in a policy that will change the school education system to make sports an integral part of our society.
The sad part is that our decision makers, our policy makers and influential leaders, have themselves not been exposed to sports and do not understand the whole idea. We need to work towards it. Sports cannot be limited to winning Olympic medals. If one lakh people are involved, may be one might win a medal. But the rest will have many opportunities to develop themselves through sports. They will be better leaders. They will have worked in a team. Today corporates conduct team building exercises through sports. It gives that kind of exposure to the team. This has to start when the child goes to school. Our mindset towards sports has to change. This is where the government has to play a big role.
Over the past years of working with FIFA in different countries, have you seen any model that works best in developing football?
As far as a model is concerned it has to be tailor-made to suit our conditions. We cannot say whatever works in Germany may also work in India. Their situation is very different from ours.
The rise of Afghan football is one such example. In the case of Afghanistan, football unites them. In sports, if you see their medal tally in the South Asian Games, they are not among the top three or four. But in team sports like Cricket and Football, they are big. In Football, they are in the big four. Every tribe there comes together because of football. They have a lot of migrant population in Europe and they are playing for Afghanistan. Half of their team is from Europe and that helps. Afghanistan also runs a lot of grassroots programmes. They have about 31 provinces and they’re trying to activate football in every province through grassroots and youth programmes.
They have their own ISL-type event, the Afghanistan Premier League. The revenue generated is over $3 million in sponsorships and broadcasting rights. This is one of the great success stories of
this region and through this they are able to give chances to local talent. Women are also playing football and are planning to have a league. They have a great passion for football and the raw talent is there. Their success is a combination of making great efforts and ability to rope in highly experienced players from Europe to their team. That’s how they are getting the international wins. In their situation, whatever they are doing is not very easy, so hats off to them.
One of the events that have announced the Indian football scene at the global stage is the ISL. How do you see the event changing the way the game is played and
perceived?
One thing ISL has shown to the world is that India loves football. Kochi is one of the cities at full capacity always. And the average attendance across India is about 24 000, which is a good number.
What remains to be seen is how they can take advantage of this property whereby development becomes key. At the end, the national team should be the prime focus for everyone. The way the national team performs reflects the environment of football in the country.
Any league which has the right characteristics will be able to survive and succeed in India. The youngsters today, who follow European football, are looking for similar opportunities in their locality. If you see all the top European clubs have a large fan base in India. These people can associate themselves with local teams. Loyalty can be built and we have a strong base of 200 million people who love football. We need to find a way to capture their attention 24X7 for 365 days.
Text: Anish Shankar Photos: Dennis Antony