AIFF set the standard high. If no team re-bid within the time. Then what AIFF will do interesting to see. IMO they take the time to rethink about the inclusion of AIFF academy team.
Tie-ups galore in Indian football, but no results in sight
NEW DELHI: 'Tied up in knots' could be an apt summation of the plethora of tie-ups that Indian football witnessed with top European clubs in recent years, partnerships that seemed to be driven primarily by commerce, if experts are to be believed.
Notwithstanding the involvement of the biggest names in club football -- FC Barcelona, PSG Saint Germain, Arsenal and Liverpool etc, these link-ups, most of them technical, have failed to inspire confidence as far as game development in the country is concerned.
Recently, Spanish club Atletico Madrid ended its association with Indian Super League franchise Atletico de Kolkata due to disagreements over youth development.
"These are all commercial ventures and has little impact on football development," says Shaji Prabhakaran, former FIFA regional development officer for South and Central Asia.
Prabhakaran has been involvement with the game for more than two decades and had worked at the All India Football Federation and Asian Football Confederations (AFC) before being appointed regional development officer of FIFA.
He added, "It's basically for elite people who can afford.
"Many of the country's promising talent, living in abject poverty in the deep interiors of the country, don't even know of such projects and will never be able to afford them. It's basically a branding exercise."
Despite the flurry of activities in recent years, including hosting the upcoming FIFA U-17 World Cup and the advent of ISL, an Indian team in the World Cup still remains a far-fetched dream though the country has a huge fan following for the beautiful game.
Realising the enthusiasm for the sport among Indian teenagers, Europe's biggest clubs have tied up with some leading schools in the country and set up training schools with private partners.
As part of a tie-up with DSK Shivajians, Liverpool FC set up a residential football coaching academy to develop players up to age 18.
Another EPL giant, Arsenal FC, has opened Arsenal Soccer Schools across the country.
"See, these tie-ups have their pros and co cons. Football development is one area where we need technical support from them. We get very strong curriculum from them and coaches come and deliver these curriculum," says Vivek Sethia, founder and CEO, India On Track-Arsenal Soccer Schools.
But they are not able to leverage it well because of the "gap in talent", which is big.
"The gap is so huge, it becomes a huge challenge. But the positive thing is there is an exchange programme, like sending students there .and getting experts from there," he adds.
Sethia agrees that it's a commercial partnership.
"It's a commercial partnership from our perspective but the fee is minimum, because they (European clubs) also look at burgeoning Indian market.
"Most of the clubs are okay as they can generate revenue from the commercial Indian market, talent is not the first priority right now.
"We are trying very hard to become relevant from talent perspective. We run both commercial and non commercial programs and also have scholarships programmes that are talent- based. The onus is on us, we don't have a footballing ecosystem and that is the biggest problem." Neel Shah, CEO of DSK Shivajians, who have a partnership with English Premier League club Liverpool FC, feels the real test of any technical partnership is to see "how the programme is running" once the novelty factor wears off.
"My first recommendation for any group exploring a technical partnership with a top European club is to ensure both parties, the international club and the foreign partner, are clear on the short and long-term objectives and expectations of the project." ..
Shah adds, "My second recommendation is that the local partner ensures their senior Indian coaches buy into the idea of the technical partnership and their inputs on the deliverables are taken into account before finalising the agreement.
"Finally, it is critical to get the right person from the international club to come over to head the project. It is absolutely vital to have someone with solid character who can comfortably handle challenges and serve as a mentor for the local coaches."
Rajesh Mehrotra, director of PSG academy in India, emphasises on the three Cs - coach, culture and curriculum - in "no particular order".
According to him, India is still a long way off from having a good grassroot curriculum like developed football nations.
Constantine included Davinder Singh (above) in the squad for the tri-nation series against Mauritius and St Kitts, which begins in Mumbai on Saturday.
Davinder Singh does not remember the breakfast menu. Rather, he couldn’t identify half of the items. For the last 10 years, the first meal on a match day was either a parantha or oil-soaked aloo-puri. But the elaborate spread on offer at a Singapore hotel wasn’t even his biggest shock. “The team meetings,” the 22-year-old says. “There used to be a small black board inside our changing room and the coach explained the strategies on it. Suddenly, I was watching videos and the coach was analysing me just like they do it on television,”Davinder said after returning from U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers last month.
The right-back doesn’t even get into the game play bit of it. The culture shock has been massive, and understandably so. A couple of months ago, Davinder was slugging it out on hard, uneven surfaces in the remotest corners of the country, playing inter-varsity tournaments for Punjabi University. Now, he is on the cusp of making his senior India debut.
After an impressive under-23 debut last month, chief coach Stephen Constantine included Davinder in the squad for the tri-nation series against Mauritius and St Kitts, which begins in Mumbai on Saturday. It’s the first time a player has been fast-tracked from a university team straight into the national squad, bypassing all the levels in between. And, as per the records available, it is also just the third time a player from the university ranks has made it to the national team – midfielder Eugeneson Lyngdoh and former striker Abhishek Yadav being the other two.
Yadav, incidentally, is now the chief scout. “I come from the university system. There are some really good players who play at that level but are lost since there wasn’t a system in place,” Yadav says. So Constantine and Yadav decided to cast their net wide. Scouts were packed off to Midnapore, roughly three hours from Kolkata, and Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu. Their brief was simple – strong players, especially in defence, who tackle hard and have strong aerial abilities. A list of 40 players was drawn, who were then invited for under-23 trials in Mumbai last month.
Forty became eight and eight were finally reduced to three. Suddenly, Davinder was in the India squad. “Davinder fit the bill. It wasn’t like we were looking for players in specific positions. He just was the kind of player who had the necessary attributes,” Yadav says. Davinder’s first taste of international football came in an Under-23 match against Singapore last month, and he was a fish out of water. His debut lasted 20 minutes and he came on as a second-half substitute in the second game. “The pace was too much to adjust, fitness wasn’t a problem. I drifted out of my position often, and couldn’t track back,” he says.
In those 65 minutes, though, Davinder showed he was just the kind of player Constantine likes in his defence – a strong and fearless tackler. After benching him in India’s defeat to Syria in the U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers, Davinder was handed his first start against Qatar. The impact was immediate. It turned out to be one of India’s finest defensive performances in recent times, despite losing 0-1 eventually. That was followed by another credible show against Turkmenistan, a match India won 3-1.
Come Saturday, Davinder might just become the 31st player to make his international debut in Constantine’s second stint as coach. He’s still pinching himself. “This isn’t a normal route, I know. Players spend years at various clubs before they are even considered,” he says. “I just hope to prove I belong here.”
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Tie-ups galore in Indian football, but no results in sight
Notwithstanding the involvement of the biggest names in club football -- FC Barcelona, PSG Saint Germain, Arsenal and Liverpool etc, these link-ups, most of them technical, have failed to inspire confidence as far as game development in the country is concerned.
Recently, Spanish club Atletico Madrid ended its association with Indian Super League franchise Atletico de Kolkata due to disagreements over youth development.
"These are all commercial ventures and has little impact on football development," says Shaji Prabhakaran, former FIFA regional development officer for South and Central Asia.
Prabhakaran has been involvement with the game for more than two decades and had worked at the All India Football Federation and Asian Football Confederations (AFC) before being appointed regional development officer of FIFA.
He added, "It's basically for elite people who can afford.
Despite the flurry of activities in recent years, including hosting the upcoming FIFA U-17 World Cup and the advent of ISL, an Indian team in the World Cup still remains a far-fetched dream though the country has a huge fan following for the beautiful game.
Realising the enthusiasm for the sport among Indian teenagers, Europe's biggest clubs have tied up with some leading schools in the country and set up training schools with private partners.
As part of a tie-up with DSK Shivajians, Liverpool FC set up a residential football coaching academy to develop players up to age 18.
Another EPL giant, Arsenal FC, has opened Arsenal Soccer Schools across the country.
"See, these tie-ups have their pros and co cons. Football development is one area where we need technical support from them. We get very strong curriculum from them and coaches come and deliver these curriculum," says Vivek Sethia, founder and CEO, India On Track-Arsenal Soccer Schools.
But they are not able to leverage it well because of the "gap in talent", which is big.
"The gap is so huge, it becomes a huge challenge. But the positive thing is there is an exchange programme, like sending students there .and getting experts from there," he adds.
Sethia agrees that it's a commercial partnership.
"It's a commercial partnership from our perspective but the fee is minimum, because they (European clubs) also look at burgeoning Indian market.
"We are trying very hard to become relevant from talent perspective. We run both commercial and non commercial programs and also have scholarships programmes that are talent- based. The onus is on us, we don't have a footballing ecosystem and that is the biggest problem."
Neel Shah, CEO of DSK Shivajians, who have a partnership with English Premier League club Liverpool FC, feels the real test of any technical partnership is to see "how the programme is running" once the novelty factor wears off.
"My first recommendation for any group exploring a technical partnership with a top European club is to ensure both parties, the international club and the foreign partner, are clear on the short and long-term objectives and expectations of the project." ..
"Finally, it is critical to get the right person from the international club to come over to head the project. It is absolutely vital to have someone with solid character who can comfortably handle challenges and serve as a mentor for the local
coaches."
Rajesh Mehrotra, director of PSG academy in India, emphasises on the three Cs - coach, culture and curriculum - in "no particular order".
According to him, India is still a long way off from having a good grassroot curriculum like developed football nations.
Davinder Singh does not remember the breakfast menu. Rather, he couldn’t identify half of the items. For the last 10 years, the first meal on a match day was either a parantha or oil-soaked aloo-puri. But the elaborate spread on offer at a Singapore hotel wasn’t even his biggest shock. “The team meetings,” the 22-year-old says. “There used to be a small black board inside our changing room and the coach explained the strategies on it. Suddenly, I was watching videos and the coach was analysing me just like they do it on television,”Davinder said after returning from U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers last month.
The right-back doesn’t even get into the game play bit of it. The culture shock has been massive, and understandably so. A couple of months ago, Davinder was slugging it out on hard, uneven surfaces in the remotest corners of the country, playing inter-varsity tournaments for Punjabi University. Now, he is on the cusp of making his senior India debut.
After an impressive under-23 debut last month, chief coach Stephen Constantine included Davinder in the squad for the tri-nation series against Mauritius and St Kitts, which begins in Mumbai on Saturday. It’s the first time a player has been fast-tracked from a university team straight into the national squad, bypassing all the levels in between. And, as per the records available, it is also just the third time a player from the university ranks has made it to the national team – midfielder Eugeneson Lyngdoh and former striker Abhishek Yadav being the other two.
Yadav, incidentally, is now the chief scout. “I come from the university system. There are some really good players who play at that level but are lost since there wasn’t a system in place,” Yadav says. So Constantine and Yadav decided to cast their net wide. Scouts were packed off to Midnapore, roughly three hours from Kolkata, and Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu. Their brief was simple – strong players, especially in defence, who tackle hard and have strong aerial abilities. A list of 40 players was drawn, who were then invited for under-23 trials in Mumbai last month.
Forty became eight and eight were finally reduced to three. Suddenly, Davinder was in the India squad. “Davinder fit the bill. It wasn’t like we were looking for players in specific positions. He just was the kind of player who had the necessary attributes,” Yadav says. Davinder’s first taste of international football came in an Under-23 match against Singapore last month, and he was a fish out of water. His debut lasted 20 minutes and he came on as a second-half substitute in the second game. “The pace was too much to adjust, fitness wasn’t a problem. I drifted out of my position often, and couldn’t track back,” he says.
In those 65 minutes, though, Davinder showed he was just the kind of player Constantine likes in his defence – a strong and fearless tackler. After benching him in India’s defeat to Syria in the U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers, Davinder was handed his first start against Qatar. The impact was immediate. It turned out to be one of India’s finest defensive performances in recent times, despite losing 0-1 eventually. That was followed by another credible show against Turkmenistan, a match India won 3-1.
Come Saturday, Davinder might just become the 31st player to make his international debut in Constantine’s second stint as coach. He’s still pinching himself. “This isn’t a normal route, I know. Players spend years at various clubs before they are even considered,” he says. “I just hope to prove I belong here.”