How the Coca-Cola Cup is helping to identify young football talent in India

The U-15 Coca Cola Cup is an ideal platform to identify young talent in India

The sporting landscape in India has undergone a tremendous change in the last 15 years. Once a predominantly cricket-crazy country, India today has more than one sport that it tunes into. Not only is it a case of a wider range of sports being available for viewing, but also a case of more diversity in sports adopted by youngsters as professions.

But how far along has the country come in creating a health-conscious sports culture? How many youngsters today look to maintain a healthy lifestyle? While that can’t be answered with any measure of certainty at the moment, the number of youngsters who are taking up sports from an early age is certainly rising. And a healthy lifestyle is more often than not just an extension of involvement in sports.

Football is one of the sports that have come up in a big way in terms of both viewership and interest. The Indian Super League in its first incarnation has garnered pretty impressive fan following and attendance numbers. The tournament broadly addresses the top of the food chain and in due course serves to be the ultimate playing field for top quality football in India.

Meanwhile, the hunt to identify the next rung of talent in the sport has been subtly going on for a few years now, with focus on the grassroots and youth levels. Any kind of developmental work has to begin at the bottom of the pyramid, as FIFA’s Secretary-General Jerome Valcke emphasized during his visit to India in October this year.

"What is important is that whenever you do something at the top level, you don't forget about the grassroots programs and to develop football at the level of the kids. The ISL is helping; the Indian league (I-League) is there as well. We must make sure that we're all together with one goal - to develop football in India and help India play in the World Cup sooner!" he was quoted as saying.

Of course, it is common knowledge now that India has won the rights to stage the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2017, and work is well underway towards that project.

A key partner of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) in this mission has been Coca-Cola. India’s leading beverage company has been an active agent of change through its outreach and sustainability programmes.

The Coca-Cola Cup traces its roots back to 2008, when Coca-Cola India first organized their youth level championship across the country. In 2009, Coca-Cola decided to partner with the AIFF to sponsor the erstwhile Sub Junior National Football Championship and turn it into a large-scale national grassroots football tournament. This initiative was directed towards fostering a more vibrant sporting culture in the country, in turn promoting a healthy and active lifestyle.

The tournament looks at identifying youngsters with potential and providing them with a solid platform to develop their inherent talent into a full-fledged and meaningful profession. Recognizing the huge potential present in football in India, the mission looks at training young football talent in accordance with international football standards.

The tournament helps to showcase young football talent while also in turn acting as a channel to create a talent pool for the upcoming Under-17 World Cup.

The tournament begins at the district level where inter-school matches are held across more than 70 cities; the best players then make it through to play at the state or zonal level. From the zonal level, 10 teams progress to the national finals, from where the ultimate champions are determined.

Meghalaya are the defending champions, having beaten the boys from Odisha in last year’s final. In that edition, the tournament drew participation from over 41,000 young footballers from 2,610 schools across 86 cities.

Coca-Cola is aiding in the AIFF’s larger mission which is to have more participation at the grassroots level (6-12 years), which in turn will result in more and more children taking up the game. All of that will result in a strong youth football structure taking shape in the country.

Along with the AIFF’s other in-house grassroots programs, such tournaments seek to augment developmental efforts in the country as far as football is concerned, so that when the U-17 World Cup comes around in three years’ time, India can put forward a top quality squad as the host nation.

5 positives that will emerge from the unification of the ISL and I-League

It was considered a new dawn for Indian football when the Hero Indian Super League was formulated, with the tournament supposedly carrying the broader vision of improving the standard of football in the country and enabling local footballers to broaden their skill sets.

The tournament has so far attracted a lot of interest from football lovers across the country with good numbers in attendance in the stadiums as well, as hooked to the action on television and other mediums. Now with the ISL popular, what of the elephant in the room that is the I-League, the incumbent football league of the country? 

A merger of the two leagues is the best solution to the problem and here’s five good reasons why this would be best for business:

#1 A single unified league

A country should have only one established league thereby making it a single point of reference as far as football is concerned. There can be different tiers (first division, second division etc.), but there cannot be two competing leagues. The only thing it does is fragment the attention the sport gets between the traditional and new leagues.

We’ve already seen an example of this in India before – the Indian Premier League (IPL) jostled with the Indian Cricket League (ICL) in the initial years, hockey also saw the fragmentation with two governing bodies and many different leagues over the years. Moreover, since the ISL has the blessing of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), the governing body would do well to lay down the hammer and merge the two competitions to ensure a single, strong, unified league, which is best for the country.

#2 Scattering of talent

Another fallout of competing leagues is the scattering of talent that happens. The rather awkward predicament that it puts a lot of the players in is one that we don’t want to see where a few of them would be stuck in the i-League and others in the ISL. Also, if the ISL continues to attract the better foreign talent, then the I-League will die a slow death thanks to cannibalization.

So, the merger would address a major issue in ensuring that there is a single umbrella under which the Indian players play with no clashing obligations while also making sure that the knock-on effect from the best of foreign talent is infused into one league. It would also allow scouting for the national teams to happen at once. 

#3 Leveraging of resources and infrastructure

There are a few things that are very obvious when you look at the two leagues. The ISL has the money and the pulling power from the stars (the ones that draw eyeballs in India) and crucially it wins the television battleground, with Star Sports heavily involved. No matter how good a product or offering, it is useless if it is not carried to the masses and in this respect, the ISL is well served.

Combine this with the strengths and the constituency that the I-League has built up over the years and the two leagues can draw on each other’s strengths when they combine. Branching out and reaching each corner of the country is something the ISL will have to do, but that job will be much easier with the established credentials of the I-League in tow. 

#4 Building a fanbase

Now that football fans in the country have sampled higher level of football in the ISL, rather than throng in droves to the new I-League season, they would be most unwilling to even look in it’s direction. Its like how once you’ve tasted the fine wine, you don’t go back to the lower grades.

Two leagues would create a situation where the interest in football would be on and off during a year, resulting in crests and troughs. Combining the two will help fan bases to grow, allowing the newer ones to connect with the old loyalists and thus have larger distribution of fan pockets. The increased number of teams and multiple representatives from the same region will help boost the product and help establish a full-fledged football season and avoid a clash of dates.

#5 Knockout/ league to full blown league

Right now, the ISL is designed in a fashion where the top four teams qualify for the semi-finals and then there is a grand final, making it something of an exhibition showpiece. So the team that performs best in the league may not necessarily be the ultimate winner which is harsh in a way.

You might say that the IPL does the same, but the situation is not the same. T20 is but one form of cricket and it is the shortest form and hence it is alright that the tournament lasts for only two months. A football season on the other hand, should stretch throughout the year and be a test of endurance as well as skill where the top team at the end of the total gamut of home and away games is the ultimate winner.