BAREFOOT ON THE ASTRO. BRRRR, NOT A GOOD IDEA

I played Walking Football today at Penistone Church FC. It was my first experience of an initiative offered by the FA to get more people into sport. There has always (well as long as I can remember) been Veterans football (for over 35 years old people) but WF is aimed at 50 +. I qualify....just!

So 9 of us turned up on a typically cold and threatening late Pennine afternoon. It was 4pm and after a warm up, some of us couldn't do everything that was asked of us, we played 4 v4 with a ref for about 45 minutes. Score?...no idea...about 13-11? Did it matter? No.
I broke into a sweat, enjoyed the two touch and learned that you can't always play a pass that you used to play because people can only walk to get it.

On occasions we looked like aged Don Thompson, our British gold medal winner in the 50 km walk, making a bid for the winner's tape in the 1960 Olympics...remember him?

The outing was fun and it made me think about footwear. When I got home I emptied my trainers onto the kitchen floor and a million small rubber nodules from the astro pitch bundled out. Mrs B was outy so I got the dust pan and brush.

If I had played in bare feet this wouldn't have been a worry. Well, it links with this next news item.

The Indian Football Association has the third oldest football competition in the World after England and Scotland. This is unsurprising, since we gave them the modern game. Delhi's Durand Cup comes next historically, after "our" two Cups.

The India FA joined FIFA in 1948, so they could take part in the London Olympics. Some of the team wore NO FOOTWEAR though their feet were protected by bandages. It was what they were used to.

In 1950 India qualified for the World Cup because their group opponents, Burma, Indonesia and the Philippines all withdrew. Lots of national sides including France, Belgium and Austria failed to attend this tourtnament because of the expence of travelling to Brazil (look what it did to England!).
The Indian players were not allowed to play barefoot, so they stayed at home too. The Indian players were never consulted by their FA and apparently would have worn boots if asked! It was a life time's experienced missed.

In the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, India did qualify and they did wear boots. They came fourth.
Coach Syed Abdul Rahim, a student of the Magical Magyars (see previous blogs) produced a half decent side and they beat Australia in the quarter finals 4-2. Clearly, the Indians were no cowboys.

Rumour has it that the boot issue was not the reason for India not turning up to later tournaments. Apparently, the Indian authorities were not interested in their team joining in these global phenomenon, so they failed to meet deadlines with their applications. The 1954 World Cup forms arrived late, for example. It took three decades for them to be re-introduced into the competition, for which they failed to qualify, despite winning games against Bangladesh and drawing with Thailand. Losing 2-1 to Indonesia prevented them from getting to the Finals. Indonesia went through, then lost to South Korea in the Asian group, from which, Iraq eventually went on to Mexico,