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Gender Discrimination Exists - Subhransu Roy
Goal.com caught up with Indian women's football researcher Mr. Subhransu Roy and asked him to give his thoughts on the sorry state of the women's game in India
15-Jul-2009 1:30:18 PM
The
Indian women’s team has been scratched from the FIFA rankings after being
inactive for more than 18 months. The last international played by India was
way back in October 2007 in Tehran in a 1-4 defeat against Iran.
Roy
revealed as to what lead to the heavy thrashing at the hands of the fellow
Asian side.
“Everybody knows that the Indian women’s team suffered a heavy defeat but I don’t think anyone is aware about the circumstances which the team faced in Tehran.
“After their arrival in the Iranian capital, the whole team was asked to wear the traditional Burqas on their way to the hotel. All the girls suffered a culture shock and that surely affected their performance,” said Roy.
He further went on to mention that there were some controversial decisions against the Indian team, which led to goals.
“I have interacted with the coach, officials and all the players of that squad and from whatever I have heard for them, even the game itself was full of controversy.
“The score was 3-1 in favour of Iran with a few minutes remaining when the home side got a free-kick. Iran scored from that set piece but there was suspicion of handball in the lead up to the goal.
“The entire Indian staff and players protested. The Indian team was show caused by AFC for walking off the ground. The AIFF saw it as an act of misbehaviour from the Indian team itself and didn’t make any further investigation,” added Roy.
However, when contacted the Indian FA general secretary, Alberto Colaco, stated that the team wasn’t fined though a review over the team’s behaviour was conducted by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
“No fine was imposed. However, the AFC disciplinary committee took a serious view of the incident,” said Colaco.
Coach Premkanta Singh denied that the team walked off the field but they did protest against certain decisions.
"We protested as he felt that we were denied the Fair Play," said Premkanta.
Mr. Roy then questioned AIFF’s commitment towards the Indian women’s senior team and termed the federation’s comments on the women’s team results as ‘ridiculous’.
“The men’s team is currently in Spain for a tour while the women’s team don’t even get to play friendly matches before an international tournament.
“Ever since the FIFA Women’s rankings were introduced in 2003, India hasn’t dropped out of the top 60.
“Now from October 2007 to May 2009, they didn’t play a single game, yet their rank was around 50. So we can very well imagine, what their rank would have been, had they played matches in that period.”
While women’s football does have a national level tournament for a month or so, what it lacks is an equivalent of an I-League.
“Other than that only a few states have regional tournaments, with very recently Maharashtra having a state league for women.
“Mr. Dasmunsi promised to have a league by 2010 but that is a long way off now.”
Mr. Roy then talked about the need to play international friendly matches to get back into the FIFA rankings and also admitted that gender discrimination is definitely a reason why Indian women’s football is suffering.
“The team needs to play friendly matches now so that they are once again included in the rankings.
“Football is still considered a men’s game in our country. No matter how much anyone tries to deny, that causes disparity and the women’s game suffers as a result,” he concluded.
Subhransu Roy is the president of the Valerian Soccer Foundation, which is a soccer study and research center. He has also been researching on Indian women’s football for more than three years and is currently doing a PhD on Indian women’s football from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata.
Amoy Ghoshal.
“Everybody knows that the Indian women’s team suffered a heavy defeat but I don’t think anyone is aware about the circumstances which the team faced in Tehran.
“After their arrival in the Iranian capital, the whole team was asked to wear the traditional Burqas on their way to the hotel. All the girls suffered a culture shock and that surely affected their performance,” said Roy.
He further went on to mention that there were some controversial decisions against the Indian team, which led to goals.
“I have interacted with the coach, officials and all the players of that squad and from whatever I have heard for them, even the game itself was full of controversy.
“The score was 3-1 in favour of Iran with a few minutes remaining when the home side got a free-kick. Iran scored from that set piece but there was suspicion of handball in the lead up to the goal.
“The entire Indian staff and players protested. The Indian team was show caused by AFC for walking off the ground. The AIFF saw it as an act of misbehaviour from the Indian team itself and didn’t make any further investigation,” added Roy.
However, when contacted the Indian FA general secretary, Alberto Colaco, stated that the team wasn’t fined though a review over the team’s behaviour was conducted by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
“No fine was imposed. However, the AFC disciplinary committee took a serious view of the incident,” said Colaco.
Coach Premkanta Singh denied that the team walked off the field but they did protest against certain decisions.
"We protested as he felt that we were denied the Fair Play," said Premkanta.
Mr. Roy then questioned AIFF’s commitment towards the Indian women’s senior team and termed the federation’s comments on the women’s team results as ‘ridiculous’.
“The men’s team is currently in Spain for a tour while the women’s team don’t even get to play friendly matches before an international tournament.
“Ever since the FIFA Women’s rankings were introduced in 2003, India hasn’t dropped out of the top 60.
“Now from October 2007 to May 2009, they didn’t play a single game, yet their rank was around 50. So we can very well imagine, what their rank would have been, had they played matches in that period.”
While women’s football does have a national level tournament for a month or so, what it lacks is an equivalent of an I-League.
“Other than that only a few states have regional tournaments, with very recently Maharashtra having a state league for women.
“Mr. Dasmunsi promised to have a league by 2010 but that is a long way off now.”
Mr. Roy then talked about the need to play international friendly matches to get back into the FIFA rankings and also admitted that gender discrimination is definitely a reason why Indian women’s football is suffering.
“The team needs to play friendly matches now so that they are once again included in the rankings.
“Football is still considered a men’s game in our country. No matter how much anyone tries to deny, that causes disparity and the women’s game suffers as a result,” he concluded.
Subhransu Roy is the president of the Valerian Soccer Foundation, which is a soccer study and research center. He has also been researching on Indian women’s football for more than three years and is currently doing a PhD on Indian women’s football from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata.
Amoy Ghoshal.
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