The plight of football in India itself is appalling. Lack of Infrastructural amenities and the Social make-up of our country along with dirty politics and inherent sexism, women's football in India is a long shot. Even then, on paper the women's team fares way better than the men's team. How you ask? Because the women want to play. They want to compete on an international level. But thanks to the rampant sexism and the patriarchy in our country, Women's football is a comparatively underground scene.
Thankfully, we have a few people who are persistently trying to make this pipe dream turn into a reality- Espiciousa Rebello
We had a chat with 'Sp' as she is fondly called by everyone. She expressed her disgust for the administration and also explained the problems that are faced by the people that are taking efforts to help improve the system for women's football. Even then she stresses on the point that women's football in India has great potential.
A bit about Miss Rebello
Espiciousa Rebello is a former player for Maharashtra in her college days. She started playing for the Wadia women's team and later played for the university of Pune. She is currently Pune's District football coach, Physical Education teacher at the Mercedes-Benz international school and also a current player for Pune's Beckdinho FC. She is the only person handling the PDFA's women football administration. She is the daughter of the current Joint secretary of the PDFA, Mr. Joseph Rebello, also a player himself in his younger days.
She organised the first ever PDFA league this year after a perseverant time period of 6 years of hard work. She explained to us how consecutively year after year, there were either no teams or some administrative complication due to politics or ignorance.
Her take on Women's football in India
Firstly, Women's football in India needs better leaders. The current leaders seem to turn a blind eye towards the development of any kind in this field. There is a lot of room for improvement in the administrative machinery. There is no specific process for selections. Due to the psycho-social make-up of Indian families, not many girls turn up for if at all. There are very few coaches and if a female coach isn't present, the academies have to bear the brunt of paranoid parents. There is also a lack of communication in between the governing bodies make it really difficult to co-ordinate with the legal bodies.
On a brighter note, Jharkhand and the Northeast states, especially Manipur are the only states that actively promote women's football. you can see a difference in their game. PFC have actively made it a point to uplift the state of women's football. They also have programs for underprivileged girls where they teach them the beautiful game and also organize tournaments for them.
She concludes by stating that the condition of women's football is getting better every year even though there is a lot that can be done and the potential level is massive. The discrimination should stop and the corruption should be eradicated from the system and she wants the movement of women's football to grow in India and there is a lot of potential. All it needs is a little support and a little bit of a fan following.
She signs off with a hopeful smile.
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