When the Sports Ministry unveiled its landmark funding overhaul this week — a 75% increase in allocations, a long-overdue push for professional governance, and an athlete-first model — it felt like a transformative moment for Indian sport, but not for Indian Football.
But for those of us who’ve walked muddy touchlines, covered I-League fixtures in front of sparse crowds, and witnessed the slow but emotional growth of Indian football, one line in that entire announcement hit like a punch to the gut:
“Football doesn’t make either the High Priority OR Priority categories.”
Let that sink in.
A country of over 1.4 billion. The world’s most popular sport. A men’s team consistently in the top 100. A women’s team ranked better than many in “priority” categories. Grassroots leagues emerging across states.
The Indian Super League (ISL) in its 10th season. Millions of fans waking up early to watch the Premier League. And still, football isn’t considered worthy of focused government investment.
Why This Matters More Than Just Money
It’s not just about missing out on the ₹90 lakh earmarked for high-priority sports, or the ₹75 lakh reserved for national championships. It’s about what this categorization signals: football is not seen as a sport worth betting on — by the very institution tasked with shaping the future of Indian sport.
After a decade of writing about this game — from the post-Nehru Cup high of 2009, to Chhetri’s emotional 2018 plea to fill stadiums, to the promising batch of U-17 World Cup boys who now populate the ISL — I’ve watched football fight uphill, every single year. What it needed was a little institutional faith. A reason for the next 10-year-old in Manipur, Kerala, or Kashmir to believe that playing football could be more than just a passion.
This week’s announcement sent the opposite message.
The Ministry’s Push — Necessary, But Incomplete
To be clear, many aspects of the overhaul are positive and long overdue. Full-time CEOs, performance-based funding, mandatory grassroots spending, and public selection policies — these are steps that could reshape Indian sport at every level. It’s exactly the kind of accountability fans and athletes have demanded for years.
But in skipping football altogether, the Ministry has made a curious exception. Indian football’s federation, the AIFF, is far from perfect — yes. But is it really in a worse place than some federations still enjoying “priority” status?
If volleyball, golf, and judo are part of the government’s “priority” push — all worthy sports in their own right — how does a game like football, with its pan-India participation, growing media traction, and Olympic ambitions, get left out?
The Women’s Game: A Missed Opportunity
Let’s talk about the Indian women’s football team for a second. Unlike in many other sports, our women footballers have consistently performed well in Asia and rank above many countries listed under the funded categories. Their international calendar has grown, they’ve played top nations, and there’s finally a base forming.
If not for the men’s ecosystem, why wasn’t women’s football considered even in the grassroots or development-oriented category?
We talk so much about creating equal opportunity for women in sport — here was a chance to make that count. And it passed us by.
What Football Needs (And Deserves)
No one is asking for blank cheques. But what Indian football needs is structural support — the kind this policy promises other sports.
- Grassroots investment to nurture talent in states like Mizoram, West Bengal, Kerala, Goa, and the Northeast.
- Coach education programs, not limited to AIFF’s strained ecosystem.
- Dedicated funding for women’s leagues, which often get cancelled due to lack of sponsors.
- Age fraud prevention, which remains rampant in state and school-level tournaments.
- And yes, infrastructure, especially outside ISL bubbles.
A high-performance director could help streamline India’s football vision. Sports science professionals could finally get embedded into teams at all levels. But without inclusion in the funding ecosystem, these remain distant dreams.
Hope Isn’t a Strategy — But It’s What We’re Left With
Football fans are used to heartbreak. We’ve seen clubs shut down mid-season. We’ve seen legends retire in obscurity. We’ve seen young players forced to take government exams because “football doesn’t pay.”
In 2022, when the U-17 women played a World Cup at home, it felt like a turning point. In 2024, when India pushed Qatar in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers, it felt like the start of something. And now, in 2025, we’re being told that our sport isn’t worth prioritizing.
It’s frustrating. It’s disheartening. But it won’t stop the game.
Because every Sunday, kids will still lace up boots on dusty fields. Coaches will still draw formations on chalkboards in village schools. Fans will still cheer, still believe, still hope.
But Indian football deserves more than hope. It deserves policy. It deserves inclusion.
It deserves a seat at the table. Not because of what it is today, but because of what it could be — with just a little faith.
