The money that was spent to hire the astrologer could have been used for the betterment of the team and the player, which would have been even more beneficial for everyone.
It seems that the All India Football Federation has no faith on the team. As recently it was reported that the AIFF paid INR 16 lakhs for hiring an astrology firm to motivate and inspire the team players to qualify for the upcoming Asian Cup tournament.
“Astrology is the biggest science. It is in fact above science. We should promote it”, as claimed by former Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, this incident should not be a surprise for Indians. However, as per a report of The Hindu, AIFF has become a laughing stock as said by former Indian goal keeper Tanumoy Bose who has also stated that the federation has repeatedly failed to conduct proper youth leagues and many prestigious tournaments were forced shut down. “Incidents like this will tarnish the image of Indian football”, he said.
Introduced by the britishers in mid-nineteenth century, Football has always been on the top three sports that are played and watched by Indians for a long time. But even after such craze for this game in the country, India is not that successful as it should be in this game. India has a lot of work to do to catch up with it’s European and American counterparts in this game. Currently India ranks 106th on the FIFA table. Indian National Team has never played a World Cup; however, the team has qualified for the Regional Asian Cup for five times.
Indian football is still developing unlike Cricket which has already flourished in India. With the introduction of Indian Super League, the craze for football in India has also grown and it has given many talented players to showcase their talent on the field. India has also produced players like Sunil Chettri who is only behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in terms of active players.
The people across the country have been questioning the morality of the AIFF and holding their dishonest and irresponsible management of resources as a hindrance to the development of this sport in India. The money that was spent to hire the astrologer could have been used for the betterment of the team and the player, which would have been even more beneficial for everyone.
It may be noted that the Supreme Court had appointed a three-member Committee of Administrators (CoA) to manage the manage the Indian football affairs a month ago before this incident came to light.