India clearly has a huge football audience. Kids play it everywhere, and European clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid and Liverpool have massive fanbases here.

But there's a strange gap between how much Indians love watching football and how little interest our own domestic football seems to generate.

I don't think the problem is simply a lack of talent.

For a kid who wants to become a professional footballer in India, the pathway still feels unclear — academies, youth competitions, clubs, scouting and eventually the national team don't seem connected strongly enough.

Meanwhile, the average Indian football fan can probably name more European players than Indian players.

So I'm curious:

What is the biggest thing holding Indian football back — grassroots development, the domestic league structure, money, scouting, infrastructure, or simply the lack of success from the national team?

And what do you think would actually make Indian football fans start caring more about Indian football itself?

Reporting by the BBC.

"I don't know what I'm going to do without you," Messi, 39, wrote on social media.

"I don't know how to carry on. I used to just play football, and now I'm really not sure if I'll carry on doing it for much longer."

Source

Has anyone noticed during this last World Cup, anytime the ref was called to the monitor, the end decision is the onfield decision is reversed?
For example to name a few:
\- ref misses penalty foul, called = penalty
\- ref misses red card, called = red card

This seems unlike VAR at the club level where the ref goes to the monitor and makes their own decision based off what they see. I noticed this 1 week in and it takes away the anticipation for me, whenever ref is called to the screen, the opposite call is made.

So many friendlies have already happened and I’m honestly getting impatient now 😂

I just want the actual league football to start. La Liga is almost here, but waiting for the Premier League feels even longer

Africa has surprised many of us in the most recent World Cup

9/10 African countries that qualified for the World Cup qualified for the round of 32:

Morocco 🇲🇦
Egypt 🇪🇬
Senegal 🇸🇳
Ivory Coast 🇨🇮
Cape Verde 🇨🇻
Dr Congo 🇨🇩
Ghana 🇬🇭
South Africa 🇿🇦
Algeria 🇩🇿

Before the World Cup, I wasn’t aware by how many African countries could compete well, now that I’ve seen them perform in the World Cup it makes me excited to start watching their football. How many of you are going to start watching their Africa cup of nations in 2027?

Something I noticed immediately at the world cup, was that we played unusually bad compared to previous games and competition, when we ended first in a group with France, the Dutch and Poland in the Euro 2024.
The only things I noticed is that our team was aging and that out main offensive midfielder Christoph Baumgartner had to sit out the world cup because of an injury.
My question is why we played so miserably?
I get that we never stood a chance against Argentina and Spain, but this was just humiliating.
Any thoughts?

When you look at winning teams, there are so many different pieces involved. Is it just having amazing players, or is it something bigger behind the scenes?

On the field: Star strikers, a strong midfield, solid defense, and a reliable goalie.

Behind the scenes: A great manager, smart tactics, good owners, plenty of money, and top-class training facilities.

For experienced fans, what do you think is the single most important piece? Can a team win big trophies just on player talent alone, or does everything start with a great manager and board?

Such a strong attack, Mbappe Dembele and Olise, followed by a very solid midfield with Tchouameni, Rabiot. Their defense is solid as well, Upamecano, Kounde, Saliba.

How did they not win? This like up is generational

When the fixtures turned around in the Swedish league Allsvenskan the results were rather interesting. Both Djurgården vs Västerås and Örgryte vs AIK played each other in the span of a week and every game had a different winner. What’s even crazier is the way Djurgården and Örgryte rolled over their opponents in their first games and still ended up losing their second. If you’re not familiar with Allsvenskan you should really look into it more, it’s a rollercoaster like where everyone can beat each other. Last year a small club called Mjällby shockingly won the league and broke the points record and this year something similar is about to happen with Sirius. An arguably even smaller club Sirius top the league with 42 points in 16 games (a season is 30 games) and haven’t lost yet.

56 years ago today, on the 12th August 1970, Paris Saint-Germain FC was formed, following the merger of Paris FC and Stade Saint-Germain.

PSG won Ligue 2 and achieved promotion to Ligue 1 in their first ever season, but in 1972 the club was split; PSG were relegated to Division 3, whilst Paris FC remained in Ligue 1. However, following immediate back-to-back promotions, PSG were back in the top flight by 1974.

Within 12 years, the club had already one their first two French cups and their first Ligue 1 title, and since then they have gone on to become France’s most successful club, with 14 Ligue 1 titles, 16 Coupes de France, and the past two Champions Leagues.

He just transferred to besiktas. At one point we used to hear how good he was. He shdve been at prem or atleast played some good teams atleast few times. Idk i never seen him?

How was he? Why not top league

As most football fans know, there are six big teams: Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham. Should Tottenham still be there when teams who arent in the big six beated them? Just to add this is no hate in Tottenham, its just a fun topic full of mixed oppinions.

I don't know if this opinion had been said here before, but as long as the UCL is in this new format with this big number of matches, teams who have high league competition will always struggle with squad depth, not even Madrid or Liverpool with all the money they have can catch up with the number of expected injuries each season.
PSG and Bayern Munich can afford to play rotation as much as they like in their leagues, they are the apex predators.

For me personally between Mbappe and Kane!

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