Talismanic former Indian footballer Sunil Chhetri on Saturday urged all stakeholders, including the AIFF, players, coaches and the media, to stop blaming each other for the sport’s current downward spiral, saying the country has to come together to revive the game. Indian football is on a freefall with the national team slipping to 138th in the FIFA rankings, while the domestic calendar faces uncertainty after the Indian Super League stalled following the end of its previous commercial management contract.
“I was also a part of the national team. And why has the ranking gone down? That is the reason why we are where we are. As players, we take responsibility.
Because of the way we have played, the games that we should have won but lost, it’s.
I took it when I was there,” he said.
“The Indian football graph, for as many years as I’ve played, has always been like this. The AIFF has also faced criticism over instability surrounding the domestic calendar and the lack of a clear long-term roadmap, while its decision to withdraw the men’s national team from the inaugural FIFA ASEAN Cup to prioritise a series of high-profile friendlies against World Cup teams has triggered debate. “We shouldn’t blame each other, saying that this player is bad, the coach is bad, the AIFF is bad. “If you want to keep blaming each other, there is going to be no point. We will have to have a debate. We need to talk, find a way, and move forward.
Because of what we’ve done with the national team, what we’ve done in the league, etcetera, we’re probably in a phase where things are not going very well,. India are scheduled to play Panama on September 26 in Bengaluru before hosting five-time world champions Brazil on October 3 and Uruguay three days later at Kolkata’s Salt Lake Stadium.
But we all have to be hopeful,” Chhetri said. However Chhetri said the players too must accept responsibility for the national team’s decline. Chhetri said Indian football now had a choice — continue with the blame game or collectively work towards fixing its problems. The former India skipper said every stakeholder had a role to play and warned that constant blame would get the game nowhere.
