The lesson Indian football must learn from Gourav Mukhi incident

Gourav Mukhi was given a six-month ban from playing but has now been cleared to compete.

Indian football has collided with another incident of age-fraud. Eric Lalsangzuala had captained the India U-15 team earlier this year during an exposure tour to Italy, but the same player is registered with the AIFF with the date of birth – 15th June, 2002 – making him at least 17.

In the recent past, Indian football underwent this sizable furore against age-fraud after Gourav Mukhi’s incident was caught by the national press. Gourav Mukhi, while playing for Jamshedpur FC against Bengaluru in an ISL game, had scored a goal and was subsequently labeled as the youngest goalscorer in the tournament’s five-year history. It followed a series of checks by the AIFF and he was banned for six months by the Disciplinary Committee.

Gourav Mukhi, later, submitted his original documents and will now feature for Jamshedpur in the ISL again. This had created the biggest debate that clouded the country and even affected AIFF’s position on the continental level.

Another incident that took place was prior to the FIFA U-17 World Cup in October 2017. A player was dropped 10 days before the start of the tournament for being overage.

In 2012, 72% of the probable players that were reportedly earmarked by the AIFF for U-17 World Cup 2017 team were found to be overage. A whopping 72%! The tussle has been ongoing for a long time now. For short-term benefits, Indian coaches have time and again used such tactics for success at several age-group levels.

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Let us now take a look at what Indian football must learn from these incidents.

First and foremost, the actual window of a football player's career remains the same. If a player has a career that’ll span for 12 years, his body will allow just that. Adulterating his/her age won’t help. He, infact, may become a victim to dangerous injuries at the later stages of his career, when he plays against younger and better players. Also, a dip in form at a falsified age may ruin the confidence of a player that may or may not happen in case he was representing his real age.

For example, if player A says he’s 28 but is actually 34, his body will slow down naturally. He will be expected to perform at a different level when he’s 28, but his body won’t respond to his needs, being 34 in reality. He will then be rejected by the fans and may have a low end to his career.

These things also harm the careers of players in the ecosystem. The writer of this piece has played with several over-aged players during his U-17 and U-19 career and was infact, affected by injuries by several players with mustaches and some even had children. These incidences have derailed the careers of several talents across the country and thus, this practice must be stopped.

Coaches must learn that short term benefits may be useful to them, but won’t help the national structure in a country that’s still rising up or is vying to rise up. It, on the contrary, pulls down quality of the youth system, as it sows the seeds of cheating and fraud.

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The All India Football Federation has already put in place several measures, but a lot needs to be done on the personal level as well. This incident happens regularly at lower-level clubs in the state divisions and competent authority (preferably anonymous) should be setup by the Sports Ministry to overlook every sport in the country. The complainant should be free of any documentary proof of his/her identity but must submit a verbal/documented proof of his claim. Legally, other provisions can surely be added.

For players, too, there can be a reward for coming out and revealing such instances. These things need to be educated at the grassroot levels, and coaches and school teachers must take more responsibility about the same.

Indian football, in totality, must learn that a system has been put in place that will eventually catch the fraud, and sterner punishments must be put in place to deter this act. But more importantly, ingraining the wrong of this act into young players is the biggest step that can be taken to averse this. Also, authorities must make sure they don’t miss out on cases like Eric Lalsangzuala, which brings unwanted negative attention to the game and to our country.

India is a nation that has an abundance of talent and if it plays the beautiful game with the right spirit, it has the right quality to do well.