By Sonal Sarda
When Juhi Shah and her football team got to the ground in Jabalpur that they were meant to play matches on in December, it wasn’t quite what they had expected.
“First, we were told we would not be playing on the ground listed in the fixtures, but another one. The ground was terrible. It was hard, it had potholes on it, and the grass wasn’t leveled properly. The goalposts, which have to be made according to FIFA specifications, weren’t up to standard, they weren’t even welded together properly. The changing rooms, which is also where the toilets were, were a 4 minute walk away from the ground. I’ve never seen a ground like this before,” says Shah.
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But that wasn’t all. A day before the matches began, the team wasn’t allowed to practise on that ground – they were only allowed to walk on it, without taking their footballs. They had to practise on another ground that was open to the public and had a cycle track around it. Every time they wanted to practise, they would have to inform their local co-ordinators, who would shoo people off or request them to play in a corner of the field so that the women could practice. Once the matches began, the other teams were allowed to practise on the ground, but with Cinderella-like restrictions: they could only practise during daylight hours. They could only practise there on the day of a match, after the match, and if the teams that had just finished playing weren’t using the ground for post-match recovery.
Thing is, these weren’t ordinary matches that Shah and her team, Maharashtra, were preparing to play.
They were hoping to qualify for the 21st Senior National Women’s Football Championship, 2015, only the most important football tournament held for women in India. This year, the championship, which began with the qualifying rounds on December 11, 2015, and is currently in the finals stage, will see 10 teams – two from each of India’s five football zones – and some of India’s greatest players (such as star player Oinam Bembem Devi from Manipur, for whom the national senior championship will be her last tournament) battling it out for the cup in what is proving a very exciting tournament so far. The All-Indian Railways and Orissa are said to be strong contenders for the cup, along with defending champions Manipur.
But this time, the organising of the tournament seems to be a bit of a mess. In 2014, it was held in April and May, and things were expected to be same for 2015. But the calendar released by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) scheduled the tournament for October and November, and kept December for the women’s U-14 tournament. However, the tournament was delayed, with the zonals being held only in the second half of December. The finals began on January 2 and will end on January 13.The U-14 tournament has now been scheduled for the last two weeks of January.
Fixtures for the national senior tournament were mailed to the players only on November 24, with the first zonal match scheduled for December 11 in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. This meant players had less than 20 days to form teams and book tickets to attend the qualifying rounds, which were held over the holiday season, when tickets are hardest to procure.
No grounds, no rooms, no loos
Shah still cannot get over how poor the facilities were. “The ground was definitely not something that you could have a national tournament on,” she says – she’s captain of the Mararashtra team and has played and refereed in national-level football matches. “I was surprised that the match commissioner approved the grounds.”
On two of the three days that Shah’s team had matches, the teams had to wait for over two hours for transport to the pre-match practice sessions (transport to practice or the main grounds is the responsibility of the state football associations. Ultimately, they had to take autorickshaws on their own to reach the practice ground. They also had to shift out of the unhygienic hostel accommodation provided to them, where 10 girls had to share one room and a bathroom, and move into a hotel within the allotted budget, for a more comfortable stay. “For a sportsperson, living like this becomes extremely difficult to perform well,” says Shah.
On December 27, 2015, the qualifiers ended. Maharashtra didn’t make it to the next round.
The finals are on
On Jan 2, 2016, the finals began, with Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, All Indian Railways, Assam and Pondicherry in the running for the cup. Never mind that there’s been barely any media coverage of the National Championship.
Bembem – who has played for the Manipur state football team since 1993, captained it since 2002, captained the Indian national team to several victories, including at the SAFF championships, and has played for the Maldivian football club New Radiant SC – says that by the time the tournament progressed to the finals, the facilities had improved slightly. Although the grounds were hard and not grassy enough, she says they were more even and did not have potholes. “There’s no point in complaining now. It had been decided that the tournament would be hosted in Madhya Pradesh. The organisers should have looked at the grounds before deciding upon the venue, but now there is no other choice. We have all adjusted to whatever has been provided.”
Astrid Pereira is playing for Goa, which has a young team of players, most of whom are under 20. She sounds more optimistic than some of the other players The Ladies Finger spoke to. She says that while the other facilities are alright, the ground needs to be watered more regularly to ensure that it isn’t so hard.
Beyond the national tournament
Here’s why the way the National Championship is being organised is so disappointing: football tournaments for women players in India are few and infrequent, and several senior footballers say we desperately need more opportunities for women to play. The AIFF said that it would host a women’s league on the lines of the men’s Indian Super League, scheduled for mid-2015 – that hasn’t materialised yet.
Bembem says she wishes there were more tournaments like the ones that have been started by Manipur and Orissa; it would give the girls a lot more practise, provide incomes, improve their performance and expose them to much more. Manipur had hosted its own 7th AMFA Senior Women’s Football League, the finals of which were held on December 9, 2015, which meant that the players were in shape for the National Championship despite having just eight days to practise as a team before the qualifying rounds began.
The Ladies Finger contacted AIFF official Indu Choudhary, who is also manager for the national team, to ask her about the poor facilities at the National Championship. She sought time to reply, and asked us to email her our questions. We’re still waiting to hear back.
Which brings us to the India’s hopes for international football. The Indian team hasn’t got together to practise as a team since early 2015. The team practises only when there is a competitive match to be played, and it’s been a few years since India hosted a “friendly” with any other country, which limit the team’s exposure as it usually works in a quid pro quo manner; you are invited to play in another country if you host that country’s team. As “friendly” matches also play their part in raising a country’s international ranking by FIFA, the Indian team is losing out on multiple fronts.
Just a few days ago, the Indian men’s team won the South Asia Football Federation (SAFF) tournament. India won the bid to host the SAFF women’s tournament this year in August and September. But here’s the thing: the Indian women’s team won all three editions of that tournament, in 2010, 2012 and 2014. Only the first time did they receive an incentive of Rs 25,000 per player for winning. They next two times, they were given nothing. And given the way the National Championship is being organised, is the AIFF really ready to host an international women’s football tournament when it treats its own players so shabbily?
Miraculously, the women’s team still throws up great players whose love for the game keeps them going. And Bembem, who’s had a great run, is hoping that she goes out with a bang, with her sights set on one last prize. She’s hoping fervently that her team, Manipur, 17-time winners of the National Championship, will win once more.