Why Isn’t India Good at Football? 

when will we see india at a World Cup?🤔

India has no grass roots. When I was a kid playing football (the 2010s), I had NO IDEA how to get into Association football, or even play in a local league.

Niran would’ve won India a trophy if it wasn’t for his earth-shattering, mind-bending, cataclysmic, world-destroying, apocalyptic knee injury

The Indian team doesn't even half the best 11 footballers from the country. There are some insane talents who don't even get to sniff a national team trial due to lack of infrastructure.

San Marino vs India friendly would be absolute scenes man

Money is also a problem. Iniesta was offered to a top club in India- Mohun Bagan at 80 crores in his wages. Their response to his agent was that their club is valued at 80 crores 😅

Indian here - our Golden Era (1951 to 1962) was actually phenomenal, at one point having the best defender in Asia (Jarnail Singh), with a coach called Syed Abdul Rahim who had the team playing beautiful football and being called "The Brazil of Asia" When Rahim passed due to cancer less than a year after our 1962 Asian Games triumph, former player Fortunato Franco said "With him he took Indian Football to the grave", which just rings true because since then we've never got to those lofty levels of success There's actually a Bollywood movie coming out about this golden era called "Maidaan" which has been postponed numerous times already but should be coming out this April, and I'm hoping that movie helps push interest higher

Mentality is the biggest thing. Being a footballer is not a viable career option for our parents no matter how much potential you showed.

I was wondering if your ever going to revive your old F1 channel given its surge in popularity in recent years. As a fan of both sports, I know I would watch both of these channels if both had regular uploads. I can remember your old Renault career from like 7 years ago, and it was what got me into formula 1 in the first place. Thanks.

If India played football the same amount as they played cricket, they would be up there with the best national teams in the world. But they don’t do that, and even if you don’t play cricket in India, it is usually something like badminton before football

I guess they are getting better. I'm a Sri Lankan and we all used to get a draw against India. I'm telling you those days it used to be a rivalry 😂 now it's worse. For now, them being in the Asian Cup is a huge achievement. Since my country's FA is banned, I have no hope for Sri Lankan Football coz the best player in our country is currently working a Data entry job 😢.

coming from a really football crazy state, Kerala... as you pointed out the coaching quality is really poor and their selection process as a whole is appalling.. they dont check on your fundamentals most of the time (bias) ..and as many pointed out...this Indian side isn't the best of the country. skilled players are either left out or conservative parents really don't take the risk which is fair considering the level Indian football rn. The irony is cricket isn't the national sport as you said.. its hockey.. and although they do fairly well nobody plays hockey like cricket.... its hard for another collective sport to come up considering how crafty and corrupt indian systems are

Because they all wanna become cricket players 🏏

Even our national team coach says most current players for the national team lack the fundamental basics of football that you’re supposed to learn at the age of around 10.

Shambolic govt support and total lack of culture for sports overall (except for cricket) has led to this. On top this there's rampant corruption at every governing body at every level. Even recently the coach criticized the board for football for their performance in the AFC cup and he was simply told to shut up. It's so sad to see the wasted potential here.

The spark was there and is still there. Football is growing very slowly (our league is only 10 years old). We will rise slowly but surely. Thanks for this vid Niran. You've brought valid points and good info up that maybe the world never knew. Appreciate it ❤️

Jordan made it to the final congrats as an indian fan hope they win it

I feel like people talking about cricket are ignoring the fact that the United States and Canada national teams have been improving drastically. Even with soccer (football) only being the 5th most popular team sport in the U.S. and Canada. So I feel like being good at cricket and good at soccer shouldn’t be mutually exclusive.

Pretry good and accurate vid bro I have seen a lot of youngsters with massive talent who without any training and coaching play very good technical ,skillful and simple football leave the game because they didnt get any chance or they give into parental and society pressure and choose different path . India has a lot of talented players here but they did not get any proper guidance or push . But i believe the future is bright more development can be seen in our grassroot area and a lot of promising youngsters are coming up I think maybe in like within this decade india will have a turn to the better side I really hope we do❤

Never thought Niran would make a video like this. I’ve always thought why doesn’t India have some good footballers with that big of a population. Being IndoFijian we have so many talented local footballers but no one ever makes it to the big stage. Rugby for Fiji and Cricket for India seem to be the only dominating sports in their countries. I’d love to see some opportunities and players make it to the Prem in the future for the game I love.

@FNG 8:38 attendance record for any sport in India is 130000 in 1997. Kolkata Derby

Money , passion , Technical know how and Support system . These are all one of many reasons. Thanks Niran for pointing out the Obvious reasons , we india are improving but still need the support to even have a chance to even compete. We are a Cricket mad people's nation and I'm not saying we shouldn't but we also need to branch out THE GREATEST GAME OF ALL TIME . Chess , kabbadi , Weight lifting , Miss world /universe , Hockey are also slowly growing . 💪. Come on India 🇮🇳 👏 ❤.

I actually liked this video. Good work Niran. Do videos like this from time to time. Looked like you did good research for this video

There’s an Indian movie called Maidaan coming out this April, which is about the glory days of Indian football

Another point to add to your list is that, even though there are countries in Africa or South America lacking infrastructure, funding, and plagued by corruption, many talented players emerge. The main reason is that the sport of choice for these nations, whether rich or poor, is football. In India, however, it's cricket, and people often underestimate its depth. It has reached a point in India where selecting the playing 11 has become challenging due to the abundance of talent, both domestically and internationally. India dominates the youth cricket World Cup, having won it five times. Just yesterday, they qualified for their fifth consecutive U19 World Cup final. Simply put, a young kid from the poorest neighborhood aspires to be a cricketer more than anything else, and it wouldn't be surprising if he doesn't even consider football as an option or worse doesn't know what it is. But still after India should be better of then this just for the sheer size of its population

3:13 all those Basmati Rice jokes and bro still forgot to mention that🤦‍♂️

Thank you for bringing the attention of the world towards the condition of Indian football. I hope it will help Indian clubs and country to take necessary steps to bring us back to the glory days.

My friend trialed for Hyderabad FC. Niran kinda hits the right points, he revealed the selection process is very poor. The coaches select footballers based on penalties sometimes just to reject a few players. The players and coaches are severely underfunded at the grassroots levels. TV sponsors are few and far between even for international matches. Hope a change is coming soon.

The problem with India is the size of the pie. The amount of money dedicated to funding things like facilities, coaching, fields, equipment, is just gobbled up by sports like Cricket, Tennis, Hockey, Track and Field. These sports also gobble up all the athletic prospects as scouting talent in India's footballing realm is garbage. If this were to turn around, we don't just need heroes, we need artificial inflation of the incentive for football. There has to be a money dump for a decade into the sport that rivals the likes of the "big" sports in the country. Get international coaches, scouts, have them provide guidance on facilities and scouting methodology. It'll happen, but it will take time.

Just shouting out our other legends Baichung Bhutia, I.F Vijayan, etc. We will succeed but another problem that we face is the new generation is less into in person sports and more into e-sports. The support for the game is present but it needs to be thousand fold more if we ever need a chance of starting to see progress.

kudos to you for highlighting this and you were spot on on the points you mentioned.. sad to see a football loving nation not produce a genuine talent barring one

Loved the vid bro! Thanks for bringing this to light 🙂. love from India ❤

Making a worldcup (2026 hopefully) might change the perspective of our people as well as the government.

The national sport is actually field hockey :) India has a great history with field hockey at the Olympics as well

Nice video bro, keep it up!❤ you’re funny,informative and quick❤ gained a sub❤

Because of curroption. I have played football for my city and state but the thing is it isn't all "talent" most people pay to get into teams. A lot of people pay money to get into teams replacing actual talent who deserve to play

4:35 😂 that’s why i love Nieran so much

man you were spot on about problems in indian football!!! i wish something changed here!!!

Thanks for covering this topic! This is something we Indians have always wondered as well!

Simple reason: Over dependence on cricket 🏏 and still not successful......

Football doesn't run in India's veins , besides that india is not focused on youth development at grassroot level simply.

The problem is that Indian parents and their education systems are very harsh on young ppl who dont have time to devolop and since the population density is so high there are very few good pitches and facilities. before i moved to Scotland last year, when i was 7-13 years old i used to play football with my friends on the roads and we had nothing to learn we just played so well there it is

Loved the video niran! But get the map in the first frame right please...

500 million Europeans and not one Kabaddi player!🤯

Bad genes, bad infrastructure, corruption in sports in India, Less money and lack of sporting culture in general.

Sunil Chettri did have stints with Sporting Lisbon & Kansas City Wizards

I also wonder if there is a cultural influence too - as well as young people just gravitating to better paying or more stable academic careers theres also a strong societal/familial expectation for what career young people persue (hence the medicine/computing/engineering stereotype)

Why did you show that map of India, there is no pok there is only India

Niran would’ve been playing for India If it wasn’t for his Knee Injury

Tends to be a big problem in South East Asia. We have a player (loaned out at the moment) called Otis Khan who is a massive deal to Pakistan and their football team...we're struggling in League 2.

we need more vids like this. class

use the correct map please

Firstly correct the Indian Map. Do your research properly.

wish you spoke about Baichung a bit more :( but overall great video!

Great video Niran

If weren’t for niran leg injury India would’ve been the best national team in the world

Bro as an indian you read. The football in our country we do need to work on this😢

well to honestly Indian football ⚽ ⚽ is all about small pocket of population west Bengal,kerala,northeast India and few people in big cities an people in that cities are from Kerala,north-east who migration for job and few people native Indian 's don't except anything so easily that's the case with cricket too untile we won 1983 world cup we become a cricket nation until hokey was no1 because of 8 times Olympic winner's if football needs to grow in India the national team must win FIFA world cup qualification is not enough it will be 2 to 3 year's hyped bubble that option 1 option 2 well as Indian i played football for school team qualified for district level but no more support for us to go further i always love to play football but love to watch cricket and if anyone as kid is interested to be a footballer we have no support to tournament in most of the region it will be uncommon for most of the Kerala fans but that's reality in most of states we need proper ground level support for younger talents and make footballer a viable career how to make football popular and viable career take help from the big guy cricket how not directly but indirectly by making a ipl franchise like RCB,CSK,MI,KKR, to buy or create a football club example (royal challengers FC ,Chennai super kings FC) it will bring huge cricket audience watching isl to support match between RCB FC VS CSK FC just like ipl and increase popularity of football and reach of football to majority of population bringing sponsors more money to isl with IPL franchise's brand value supporting foreign football team as most of Indian football fan's do and then blame cricket for India not good at football will not make a change in India only even now many Bengali are avoiding football like your crush avoid you recently and Indian football will be only Kerala and northeast that's just small amount of Indians are football fans only Kerala truly care about football and know one else realize

Get ready for 1mil indian squad is coming!

Football sucks and we don't give shit about football

As an indian , this man summed it up perfectly , didn't miss out on anything, insane...👌

Really breaks my heart what currently going for indian football

#freekashmir

I’m gonna edge to this video

Feeling the new outro music! 🔥

India is diverse country. Not every state has football heritage. Kerala, goa west benkal and north east states are genetically good with foot.but there is special program in root level to find the best in these parts. Our recruitment is not up to the mark. And indian football association is a n outdted one with no game knowledge. We are not putting our best 11 players in field right now.. there r still working somewhere. So many ignorent people is rulling game. Inida has potential forget about the current results. We need a recruitment system which understands india. And a coach which supports our playing style.

Being not good at European sports is the starting point because india is not in europe . From there India has become great at cricket . Btw foitball qorld cup will always be won by a european country or a european colonial offshoot in south america

I have talked to many of my friends, colleagues , kids , elders about watching a football game and all replied same , "watching football is boring , nothing happens unless there is goal scored and watching for 90 minutes straight waiting for goal to be scored is tiring and boring, while cricket is good there is something happening every ball". Crux of the story is we don't understand football at all. Even if we follow European football clubs(to be cool), we watch highlights only . I mean most of us . So new generation is not playing football (with correct technique) because there is no old generation to teach them how to. While every common Indian citizen can become a descent cricket coach for American and european school kids even if he has not played a single game in his entire life.

If it weren't for our discombobulating knee injury, i wouldve been playing alongside niran at liverpool by now

Im an Indian . 5years ago India was ahead of Jordan in Fifa Ranking and now they've reached the Asia cup final were We've been grouped in the tournament.

The problem is the league structure as well. The leagues just don’t cover much of the country

Is this going to be a new outro? I like it

Fr bro i need to know 😂

Honestly if they invested more in Kerala and goa for a separate league. They would be making serious bank. The 7s tournaments and leagues are already crazyyy there. They often fill the stadiums in ISL for Kerala blasters games

the main problem not only for sports in india but across many sectors is the failure and ignorance of the government.

For those guys who are saying infrastructure, money and govt are the only problem...I think you guys are wrong...even countries like palestine,morocco,ivory coast etc plays far better than us do you think those guys spends more on football...🥴look at palestine even with all those problems they are facing recently their performance in Asia cup was fantastic...the main reason for this is mentality and passion...Brazilians and Portuguese played football to forget the hunger they had that will power that's why they created legends like Neymar and Cristiano...i don't think anyone will get all those facilities they wish but we have to step up and give our 100% to compromise for our lack of facility instead of spending time on social medias you have to work... whatever job it is hardwork and teamwork are necessary...

Its kinda cool seeing Niran create such videos, talking about why bigger nations (population-wise) have horrible football structures. As one of your many 3rd world country subscribers...THANKS FOR THESE KINDA CLIPS...!!!

The main problem is the absolutely piss poor coaching infrastructure in the country. The coaches should not even be near a school team, let alone manage big clubs.

India's highest recorded attendance in football is not the 68,000 as mentioned but it is 136,000 which was recorded during the Kolkata Derby between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan in 1997 Federation Cup Semi Final. Kolkata Derby regularly records an average attendance of over 70k and has a century old rivalry between the two clubs from Kolkata.

Jai Hind, Niran paaji.

We have talents.. but no proper management and also politics here😢😢😢

My home town Madhyamgarm, In the state of West bengal alone had top class potentials. But lack of career guidance and support defeated them. Now football is just their hobby. I think this isn't the case in most of the countries. People actually doesn't care until and unless you achieve something. Actually cricket gained popularity this way.

would love to see india vs san marino

India need to find a way of sending their best youth players out of the country. I know this wouldn’t go down well at all in India, but with a country like India that doesn’t think about football like a serious thing, they will never flourish in such an ignored system. They need to get them to a country that will actually give them good coaching and give them a chance to make it as a football player. The nearest options would be Australia or New Zealand, a country with quite good youth coaching and a constant nation in big tournaments.

3:23 - the national sport is hockey I'm pretty sure and India dominated in that as well until they switched to turf pitches and India's facilities couldn't keep up

And the fact that their best player Sunil Chetri is Nepali😂😂 son of Nepali father who joined Indian Gorkha regiment and mother who played football for Nepal National Women team

Made it to top 5

Really interesting video

3:24 Although Cricket is the most popular sport in India, the national sport is actually Hockey.

As always with sports in India, problem is administrative incompetence and zero government support. Also, for everyone talking about cricket, we only like cricket because it’s the only sport we’ve won anything at.

10:52 How didn’t you recognise the Fijian beast Roy Krishna? 🇫🇯🐐

Chettri was actually signed by QPR and even did his medical but due to immigration issues he was not allowed to join

I was thinking this a while back but about Rugby, it seemed to me that the cricketing nations also seemed to be Rugby nations instead of Football ones eg New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. It's like both India and the West Indies should be Rugby powerhouses.

As an indian football fan, it pains me that we are where we are in world football, because I've seen growing up the number of people around me interesting in casually watching and playing football. After cricket, football is definitely the most popular sport, with millions of football fans, who unfortunately like me end up supporting clubs in Europe, because of disillusionment with the national team and clubs. We have the people, but there's no structure in place to bring about any success, be that grassroots, coaching or the naturalisation of players similar to Ukraine with Brazilians, etc. Poor coaching and players unable to move abroad to learn is unfortunate, and requires a widespread cultural shift in our mindset and government backing. What bothers me, is that the government doesn't put in any efforts to try to get foreign players of Indian descent into our national team set-up. India doesn't have dual citizenship, meaning players would have to give up their countries' passport to come play for India, so they have no incentive to do that as players. If the government really cared for football, this would be a surefire way to instantly boost the level of the team, but frankly we're not bothered. Also Nirin could've become the Indian national team hero had it not been for his debilitating mind-boggling earth-shattering knee surgery :')

2023 was a great year for INDIAN FOOTBALL, we won trophies & defeated Kuwait, Lebanon & Kyrgz which brought a slight excitement in atmosphere but our biggest moment would be defeating IRAQ (they won in Penalties but everyone went fuming as IRAQ was sort of gifted that last penalty to equalize with us

the thing is we have really good youth talents but the government is not investing enough money

One simple reason: The Kapil Dev effect is needed. Remember in 1983 when BCCI lacked financial and infrastructural prowess than they currently have now. Inspite of that, we were able to win that and start a huge wave of following, leading to investment too. India [in Football], if they actually played in the FIFA World Cup they qualified for [1950], things would have been different today.

india mentioned 🗣🗣🗣🔥🔥🔥💯💯💯

Open field are for housing/factory instead of stadium

There's also Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, he played in Europa League. Only Indian to achieve that. Though it doesn't mean anything significant, just wanted to point it out.