In 1992 as a 12-year-old, I joined a cricket coaching centre near our home in Calcutta. All the coaches at that centre were women, and played cricket for Bengal. They had a day job and coached only on weekends. Our training was co-ed, with girls bowling at boys and vice-versa and whenever we played a game, the teams were always mixed. Girls often captained the team.
Today many Indian women cricketers are household names, there are movies depicting their journeys and the BCCI pays men and women players at the same rate. This progress wasn’t overnight. The women who coached me in the 1990s, when cricket wasn’t enough to make living wages, did their bit in ensuring the women’s game couldn’t be ignored - they did this by showing up. Women’s football in India in 2023 is at that point where women’s cricket was in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This when the biggest FIFA Women’s World Cup just wrapped up in Australia and New Zealand featuring the Philippines, Vietnam, Haiti, Morocco, Jamaica and Zambia.
Vietnam is ranked 32nd, the Philippines 46th, Haiti 53rd, Morocco 72nd and Zambia 77th in FIFA rankings. Jamaica, ranked 43rd, made it to the knockout stages holding Brazil and France to goalless draws. Indian women are currently ranked 60th—much higher than both Zambia and Morocco, who made it to the knockout stages on their debut. Given this reality, many feel that Indian women are closer to qualifying for a World Cup than the men’s team, 99th in FIFA rankings.
Former Tottenham Hotspurs footballer Tanvie Hans has no doubts that Indian women can make it to the World Cup much sooner than men. “Given the FIFA rankings… the women’s team is better positioned to play in a World Cup at the senior level earlier than the men's team,” concurred Ishita Godinho, FC Goa’s head for women’s development.
But both Godinho and Hans quickly add that in reality it’s still a distant dream. Unlike cricket, which is both popular and profitable all over the country, Indian football is popular in certain pockets only. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) is the second-richest sporting body in the country, but its revenue is a fraction of what cricket generates. For many years now, the BCCI has been the richest and most powerful cricket board in the world. That soft power also makes cricket more attractive across the board.
While football has grown since the launch of the Indian Super League (ISL), people are interested in the English Premier League and games involving big European teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona. This is the state of men’s football in India. So, women’s football faces an uphill task. “Women's football in India has not received the same level of attention and investment as the men’s game. This has resulted in a lack of infrastructure, training facilities, exposure to top-level competitions and grassroots development programmes that could develop the sport in the country,” rued Godinho.
On-ground situation
As if on cue, Thien Law, an AFC-licenced football coach, trains a group of boys and girls on a muddy, puddle-ridden field in Kolkata. From Monday to Saturday, every single day Law trains about 72 children, including 30 girls aged 10-19. “The girls come here to play because of Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar. Many aren’t aware how much the women’s game has progressed around the world… they just want to do what Messi and Ronaldo are doing,” said Law, who has been running United India Football Academy on this ground since 2016. “The girls are a lot more sincere than the boys. If I ask them to train twice a day, they will be here.”
Kolkata alone has about 20 such academies for girls, and just like Law’s academy, they depend on donations and their own funds to run the academy. Almost all of these academies receive little to no support from the local federations or the governments despite the fact that they serve the dual purpose of developing a talent pipeline and provide a safe space to kids and teens where they can learn to play a game, avoid falling into bad company and also stay out of trouble. Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar all came from similar academies.
Women’s football in India also suffers because the Indian Women’s League season is short, lasting six to eight weeks. “For 10 months of the year you play competitively in the UK. You play about 30 competitive games in a year. The number of games and amount of training you get during a season is significant. That makes players so much more experienced at a much younger age. In India, there is no structure… there is just this idea that this part of the year this tournament might happen. Players get to know just days before… if we are lucky, weeks before… the competition. That gives players no time to prepare and clubs have to scramble to find players to field a team,” said Hans.
Godinho also stresses the importance of a proper structure in women’s league, starting at the state level. “Only a few state associations even conduct leagues, and, overall, the structure of state-level leagues needs a lot of improvement. Regular participation in regional and national tournaments will give the footballers valuable exposure to different playing styles and standards. This experience is crucial for their growth and improvement, which will, in turn, improve the quality of the national team,” observed Godinho.
As things stand, it is impossible for women to make a living playing football. This is, again, a problem associated with lack of structure and a short season. Michel Castanha, who has played for three-time IWL champions Gokulam FC, has had to work as a football coach, fitness trainer and a football referee alongside playing football to earn living wages. Castanha, like Hans and Godinho, feels a longer season would not only help develop players and advance the game but it will also help players earn living wages. “The lack of investment and eyeballs on women's football in India means that state-level players do not earn much. Only a few of them make it to the national team in the end, and the others cannot depend on the pay from football to support their families. As a result, very few footballers pursue the sport full-time,” added Godinho. The AIFF has mandated that every team in IWL must have a minimum of 10 Indian players on a fully professional annual contract worth at least Rs 3.2 lakh. However, by all practical measures that base amount is not sufficient to cover rent, food and amenities even if it is tax-exempt.
The road ahead
Last year the AIFF laid out a plan to advance women’s football in India under its ‘Vision 2047’ document. By 2026, it wants to create a four-level league pyramid with the IWL sitting right on the top. The AIFF envisions 10 teams contesting in the IWL with a second division featuring eight teams. A bigger league is definitely a good thing, but the current ground reality and the reluctance of existing ISL franchises to field women’s teams because of the circumstances, do leave room for doubt. A source close to FC Goa said that they didn’t field a women’s team last year because the current structure and conditions do not make sense financially or football-wise.
Hans points out that in England, a proper footballing calendar was provided to everyone well in advance. “The presence of a calendar lets you know how the next week and month look like and that makes it so much easier for a club, team and players to prepare. Training is planned around the next opposition and so on so forth every week for months at a time,” said Hans.
Both Hans and Castanha are in favour of a longer season. “That makes it easier for the clubs to see value in their investment because they have a bigger window to see the returns on their investment. It makes it more convenient for stakeholders and investors to invest in something that is long-term, where they can see a transparent calendar for the year and it is much easier for them to prepare as well,” added Hans. United India Football Club’s Law, who feels our federation was late to the party, also stressed the importance of a regular and longer season.
Meanwhile, Godinho says unless there is development and investment in women's football at all levels—from the grassroots to professional—there cannot be much progress. “We need to focus on youth development through scouting, academies, and training camps. Work on the state football leagues, expansion of the IWL, a proper roadmap in terms of how teams can progress from lower leagues to the IWL, proper utilization of FIFA windows for the Indian team to play friendlies and similar matches for the junior national teams are also required,” she said.
Godinho insists that a long-term vision and commitment to it are the first steps towards achieving World Cup qualification. “Consistency and a sustained effort to improve women's football in the country are key to making it to the women’s World Cup.” Above all, what the game also requires is more publicity as well as PR and marketing so that the women's game becomes popular and the girls come to academies to be like their local heroines and not Messi or Ronaldo.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
