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Before even the official draw ceremony for qualifying ties and groups of ‘2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa’ could take place the South Asian countries are out of 2010 World Cup. What does that indicate to? To a layman it only points out that teams of South Asia are still behind rest of Asia and does not have any potential to make a mark in the World stage. It is a big set back to South Asian Countries even compare to last World Cup 2006 (qualifiers). The 2010 World Cup campaign for South Asian countries were short lived and it again shattered the dreams of millions.
This time the format of the qualification competition was different compare to last time and moreover, the announcement of new format also surprised many Asian countries since no one was expecting a sudden change in the format. The new format did put many countries preparation plan into jeopardy and teams were forced to reschedule their entire calendar due to unexpected qualification dates and format. The South Asian countries or in this matter no country in Asia can complain that due to new format they failed to progress to 2010 World Cup finals. Though it is a set back to teams which went out in first round itself but the question is that how prepared were South Asian countries for 2010 World Cup qualification competition?
Before nearing the 2010 World Cup qualification matches no country in South Asia except India could beat higher ranked teams from Asia, and performance by India team in the ONGC Nehru Cup 2007 in August 2007 was encouraging under Bob Houghton where India beat Syria and Kyrgyzstan. But against Lebanon in the 2010 World Cup qualifying away match India could not repeat the performance as it shown against Syria at home, and that resulted in India’s premature ouster from the 2010 World Cup campaign. However, India was a better side in the return match and could have scored more goals but the match ended in a 2 all draw. The ouster does not mean that India was inferior side to Lebanon but the question is that had the format being different India could have come out with different result? That is a difficult question to answer but again in football nothing is impossible, and at a time when good result was expected of Indian team.
Maldives 2-0 home victory against Yemen and Pakistan’s 0-0 draw against Iraq at away match, and India’s Nehru Cup win only shows that South Asian teams have made some progress but it is not convincing enough for fans to believe that South Asian countries are making progress. Few countries in South Asia has adopted some development projects for the growth of the game and hopefully it may bring about necessary changes at each level of the game in future, and that may create a strong foundation for the game in their respective countries from where these countries can look for qualifying for ultimate stage. But again the competition in football is tougher than any other game and football World Cup is the most popular sports property in the world and for 32 spots there are more than 200 contestants world wide. But for Asia it is tougher because there are only 4.5 slots for 46 countries. The reality is that it is going to be tougher by each passing world cup because more countries are into revamping their development model to catch the best and to be one among the best and in the race only best organized can survive and progress.
It is not that South Asian countries will never have a chance to be in the World Cup but in order to be there these countries must work on a short, medium and long term goals with a clear strategy, vision and objectives. There are no short cuts to success and nothing else brings success other than adopting the best practices with clear cut plans and policies. The potential is always there for one of the South Asian countries to be there but it is difficult to predict when that can happen. The hope is there and expectation from the fans should not dry down, and hope one day we fans can see our team in action at the ultimate stage and cheer for our teams from the stand. Impossible is nothing.
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