Northeastern region has been always an integral part of Indian football eversince the football sprouted its root in India. The involvement of North-Eastern Indian players in Indian football can be traced way back to 1948 when Talimeran Aao of Nagaland captained Indian National Football Team in London Olympics. Over the course of last few decades, the north-eastern region of India have produced many uprising Indian footballers. However there have been few factors which constantly keeps hampering the growth of football and fan culture in India. In this article we are going to discuss just about that.
1.Unfavourable Match Timings
The usual match timing of 19:30Hrs IST in Hero Indian Super League matches is not fan-friendly in this part of the country as the sun sets here little bit earlier than the rest part of India. When a match gets over, it already becomes too late for the spectators to get a public transport nearby the stadium. As a result of this, even the most devoted fans of the region have to prioritise a few matches in a season. The match timing is something which is slowly and steadily degrading the fan culture of the region.
2. Poor Infrastructure:
High standard of footballing infrastructure is something which is very much essential for the development of football in a region. Although Government is working tremendously to improve the footballing cultures of India still it is not yet successful in establishing a proper developed footballing infrastructure across all the eight states of the North-eastern region. The quality footballing talent in the villages of North Eastern India goes unnoticed due to the lack of proper platform. In this case, it is high time for the Government to take up the development of footballing infrastructure on a serious note.
3. Lack of investors:
One thing that North-Eastern states seriously lacks is the number of proper investors in the sports sector. Not a single city from the North-East comes under the list of top 10 richest city of India as per the latest GDP reports. The poor development of these regions makes it difficult for the investors to invest their sum in sports sector of the region. Lack of proper investors is something which is regarding the growth of young footballers in this part of the country. Without proper investment in the sporting sector, the development of footballing infrastructure in the region is quite impossible.