On the still-warm sand, everyone is playing barefoot. Joy and smiles, that’s the cliché. In competition, the reality is quite different. There’s no question of going barefoot on a football pitch. India knows all about it.
The story of India’s forfeit: they wanted their players to play barefoot
It’s a postcard image that fits Brazil so well. On the beaches of Rio, in the setting sun, the cariocas kick the ball around. The games are fierce: here, in the land of “futebol”, the round ball is sacred. On the still-warm sand, everyone plays barefoot.
Joy and smiles, that’s the cliché. In competition, the reality is quite different. There’s no question of going barefoot on a football pitch. India knows all about it.
In 1950, the national team qualified for the World Cup in Brazil. In the first round, they faced holders Italy, Sweden and Paraguay. In the end, however, they did not play a single match. At issue is the unfortunate habit of Indian players going barefoot on the pitch.
However, FIFA‘s rules were clear: “Shoes must be worn by all players – on the pitch at least – during the Rio tournament”, as Mr Escartin, a member of the refereeing committee, pointed out in the columns of France Football in April 1950. The heads of the Indian federation were officially informed a few weeks before the start of the competition.
However, two years earlier in London, the newly independent former colony of the British Empire had taken part in the Olympic Games football tournament. Several members of the team played barefoot. This did not prevent them from scoring a goal against France in the first round, which they narrowly lost (2-1). But the World Cup is not the Olympics. Correct dress is required on the green lawns of the World Cup!
But the shoe does not make the footballer. Football fans will remember the performance of Leonidas da Silva, one of the greatest Brazilian players in history. Nicknamed the “Black Diamond”, the man who popularised the inverted scissor kick also made history by scoring a goal barefoot at the 1938 World Cup. Outside football, it is not uncommon to see great sportsmen and women barefoot: until a few years ago, some sub-Saharan African runners took part in athletics championships.
While the story of the Indian players has become part of World Cup legend, the truth may well be more complex. Equipment constraints may have inconvenienced Indian football officials, but the real problem may be the competition’s notoriety. In the land of cricket, football remains a relatively unpopular sport – or at least it wasn’t at the time.
So why spend money and travel thousands of kilometres to Brazil to play in a cup that is of no interest to anyone on the banks of the Ganges? Since that forfeit, India has never taken part in a World Cup finals. In the Asian Cup, they have not progressed beyond the first round for more than forty years. FIFA and its wealthy partners still have their work cut out for them: a market of 1 billion people remains to be explored. But there’s still plenty of work to be done!
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