The All India Football Federation today conceded that only a couple of I-league clubs have proper sports medicine facilities and asked all the teams to seriously invest in this department.
"All I-league clubs should incorporate sports science, for prevention of injury, recovery, to prevent injury of players and help recovery of players. Sports medicine has been neglected for long by the clubs," AIFF senior vice-president Subrata Dutta said.
"Except for Bengaluru FC and may be Pune FC, all other I-league clubs do not take sports medicine seriously and do not have proper sports science facilities. This is for the sake of their better performance and for the benefit of the players," Dutta said during the launch ceremony of the fifth AFC Football Medical Conference to be held here next year.
"Take the case of Bengaluru FC, they have the best medical team which travels with the squad. They have tied up with HEAl which provides them best injury management facilities. Three physiotherapists, one conditioning coach, and a dietician always travel with them. Fewer injuries and a fit squad has been the key to their success, not big names," he said.
The launching ceremony, attended by AFC Medical Committee Chairman Dato Gurcharan Singh, SAI Director General Jiji Thomson and Organising Secretary P S M Chandran, took place almost a year before the Conference, the first-of-its-kind in India which would be held from April 2 to 4 next year here.
India would be the fourth country to host the prestigious event with Malaysia (2000 & 2011), Japan (1995) and Oman (2005) having earlier hosted it.
India has experienced some on-field incidents due to the lack of prompt medical facilities, including the unfortunate death of Cristiano Junior in the Federation Cup final match in 2004.
Even after that incident, many of the state associations of the AIFF still do not have medical committees.
Dutta said that the state associations should be made to understand the importance of sports medicine.
"During all I-league first and second division matches, the AIFF ensures that there are proper medical facilities, including ambulances, and trained personnel. All the I-league first and second division players are also medically insured," Dutta said.
"State associations will have to be made to understand the importance of sports medicine. I would suggest that the medical committee of the AIFF should monitor the state associations whether they are incorporating proper sports medicine facilities," he said.
Asked about the incidents which happened at the local or district level, Dutta said, "The match commissioner should not allow a match to be held if there are no proper medical facilities, like ambulance or trained personnel to administer Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). "The AIFF Medical Committee has been going around at various districts and making presentations about the importance of having medical facilities. But the local clubs are not serious about this."
Dutta said it was an "honour for India to host the biggest Sports Medicine Conference of Asia".
"It is indeed vibrant times for Indian football. With the U-17 FIFA World Cup set to take place in three years time, the first-of-its kind AFC Medical Conference in India could not have come at a better time. Success comes when right action is taken at the right time," he said.
"We have the ISl which will kick-off in September. Medical Science covers talent scouting by genetic application, prevention of injury, recovery from stress, doping control and also performance enhancement, all of which are vital aspects of the game."
Gurcharan stressed on advanced medical care backed with proper infrastructure.
"With players playing around 50-60 matches a year, advanced medical care with proper infrastructure is needed. You can have best doctors but without proper infrastructure and process, you cannot proceed. FIFA ensures pre-competition medical assessment is absolutely necessary," he said.
"Along with that, AEDs should be available at all times and upon a cardiac arrest on the pitch, its mandatory the AEDs reach within three minutes. We have to keep in mind, with every minute the chances of survival goes down."
He said the medical care of the footballers should be the responsibility of the clubs.
"The clubs which are better managed, which have full time medical staff, the players of those clubs get better care. So, it boils down to administration of a club.
"There are two basic components of on-field medical attention to a player in case of an incident. First is, you need to have trained people who are the first responders and they should know what to do before help from medical experts come in.
"Second is, you need to have proper training of CPR. That is essential, because this concerns life of a player."
He underlined the fact that with FIFA U-17 World Cup to be held in India in 2017, "pre-competition medical assessment is required with latest technologies and practices".
Gurcharan, however, said that it was difficult for the AFC to apply sanctions to countries where incidents happen and where there are no proper medical facilities.
"These rules and regulations to have medical facilities is incorporated in the AFC competition rules but still many countries were not adhering to them. There have been instances of countries and clubs being penalised for not having medical facilities. But, Asia is a vast continent and it will take time to incorporate all these.
He also said that there would be discussions with the AIFF on the possibility of tie-ups with the corporate sector to provide for these medical facilities.