U-17 World Cup dream dashed, India players focus on finding jobs
It was a blow to the India players who had dreamt of their moment in the spotlight early next year, after it had already been postponed once due to the pandemic.
When world football governing body FIFA announced the 2020 U-17 Women’s World Cup in India has been cancelled, it was a blow to the India players who had dreamt of their moment in the spotlight early next year, after it had already been postponed once due to the pandemic.
There is reprieve for India as FIFA announced on Tuesday that the country would host the 2022 edition. The current set of players though won’t be eligible to take part due to the age criterion.
The youth structure in Indian women’s football is almost non-existent. And having spent time and resources to scout and prepare a competitive team, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) now will have to repeat the expensive and demanding process all over again. It also remains to be seen whether Swedish coach Thomas Dennerby is retained as head coach for the 2022 tournament.
The cancellation had seemed inevitable for some time due to many reasons. Firstly, many continental confederations were not able to hold qualifying tournaments. Asia though held the qualifiers last year—Japan and North Korea bagged the two spots.
Europe nominated its three highest-ranked teams—England, Spain and Germany—and Oceania followed suit, nominating New Zealand. North America and South America and Africa postponed its qualifiers due to the Covid-19 situation. African nations had also disbanded their U-17 teams.
Though FIFA has not made any public comment, India’s daily Covid-19 case count over the last few months had raised concerns. FIFA had initially postponed the tournament to early 2021, but with India reporting a high number of daily Covid-19 cases, the chances of India hosting the tournament as per the new schedule didn’t look high.
For India’s probables hoping to make the cut for the final squad, the cancellation is a major blow.
Amisha Baxla, a 16-year-old midfielder from Gumla in Jharkhand, had been part of the India U-17 camp in Goa that was disbanded amid the pandemic. Still awaiting official communication from AIFF on the cancellation, Amisha vowed not to give up playing football.
“We’ve not been informed anything as of now, but I read in today’s newspaper that the tournament has been cancelled,” she said over the phone. “I am very disappointed that we won’t have the chance to play this World Cup. All of us were working really hard. First it was supposed to be held in November, then it was postponed to February, and now it has been cancelled. It’s disappointing that after all this time, the tournament is not taking place.”
Baxla, who lives with her parents, brother and sister in Gumla, had been training with seven other players in a camp organised by local authorities in Ranchi in the last few months.
“The lockdown made us stay at home for a few months before eight of us resumed training in Ranchi. Before this, I had a great experience with the Indian team. I got to play in Bhutan, Hong Kong and Turkey too. The team was coming up really well but the pandemic disrupted everything,” she said.
A Class 10 student at the St. Patrick’s School, Gumla, Baxla has been attending classes online. But football remains a priority too, she said. “I have played in the nationals. I plan to keep on playing because I love playing football. I will also try to look for a job. For us players, we like to play whenever we get the opportunity, be it the senior nationals or any other tournament.”
Baxla’s teammate Sunita Munda, a 16-year-old striker in the India U-17 team, said: “I’ve not received information about the World Cup being cancelled.”
Munda, who was also in the local training group with Baxla, hails from Ranchi and lives with her family that includes her parents, grandmother, three sisters and brother.
Having started playing in 2015, Munda played with other national age-group teams before joining the India U-17 camp in Goa last year. “I loved playing with the Indian junior team. It would have been great to play in the World Cup. If the World Cup is indeed cancelled, it would be sad,” she said.
Like Baxla, job is a priority for Munda too. She says it is important to land a good job and not depend entirely on football. “I will keep playing even if I don’t get to play the World Cup. I want to do well in professional football but many of us are also playing so that it helps us land good jobs too.”
With little clarity over when domestic football tournaments can resume amid the pandemic, Munda, a Class 12 student at the Government Girls’ +2 School, Bariatu (Ranchi) says she will turn her immediate focus to next year’s board exams.