Sol Campbell admits that while India is still ’50-100′ years behind some of the world when it comes to football, they have to accept that progress will be slow.
India has just hosted the u17 World Cup, which Sol claims has given the country vital exposure. However, the Invincible admits that they’re still a long, long way away from catching up with the rest of the world.
“You have to start somewhere. A lot of other countries are 50-100 years ahead of India. You need to patch up. You are on the right path, have hosted the under-17 World Cup and got exposure. A training centre is coming up in Kolkata. That will help. You have to go around the world and get more information,” said the former defender.
He added, “It will take time. It is not going to happen overnight. You need more centres, more conversations with FIFA. It is happening now and will help.
“You have to be mindful of how to play, how to qualify and how to win matches. The experience will make the players better.”
India’s u17s were knocked out of the World Cup they hosted at the group stage after failing to win a single match. They only managed to net one goal. However, as Sol says, the tournament itself will bring exposure to the sport in their country and, with that, comes money and hopefully an uprising of new talent.
India’s senior team are ranked 105th in the FIFA World Rankings, which is low but it’s also a vast improvement on three years ago when they were all the way down in 171.
As Sol suggests, if India do want to catch up with everyone else and make football a more recognised sport in their country, they’re going to have to ‘patch up’ but results won’t come overnight. What they can do for the moment is watch, learn and practice.