The AIFF is confident it will be awarded the rights to host the event.
The FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017 is at the nation's doorstep and preparations around all venues are almost done as India begins to welcome all the participating countries. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) President and the chairman of the local organising committee of the U-17 World Cup, Praful Patel met the press at an event organized in Delhi earlier this week.
“We are 100% ready for World Cup and I am very pleased to announce that the stage is set to host FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017.”
It is also official that the nation has already put in a bid to host the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2019. Patel is hopeful that after hosting the U-17 World Cup successfully, India will be in a commanding position to win the bid and the FIFA Executive Committee will be pleased to grant the same after witnessing India's ability, enthusiasm and commitment towards the game.
“Not only that we are ready but also expect that the momentum which has been built up, I think India can be a world-class host of this event. Besides hosting this World Cup, India has formally put its weight for the FIFA U-20 World Cup to be held in 2019. We do expect and hope that the conduct of this World Cup (U-17) in India and with the entire FIFA Executive Committee coming to India, we will be in a position to convince FIFA of India’s ability, enthusiasm and commitments for hosting such tournaments. So, we certainly feel that the time has come for India.”
The AIFF President also announced that the entire team will continue to work together for the next few years, looking at the U-20 World Cup and also to build a strong national side in the future. While he also hinted at the possible extension of the contract of present India U-17 coach Luis Norton de Matos.
“We have already decided to continue to keep the team as one unit and may bring players in from other age groups for the next few years. We will also ask the coach to continue with us, post this tournament so that we are able to help this young crop develop into the true stars of tomorrow,”
He further added, “Today, they are untested and we are offering them a future. At the end of the day, we as a nation also want to build a strong national team and that is our endeavour. We are trying to put them on a contract and they will be rewarded reasonably well. If the national team has to do better in the future and assuming that we win the rights to host the U-20 World Cup in 2019, then, I think we are on the right track.”
Khel Now sources, close to the developments believe that India are strong contenders to win the bid for the U-20 World Cup in 2019 and that world football's governing body is happy with the AIFF’s work for U-17 World Cup and it is most likely to grant India the rights to host the event in 2019.
Meanwhile, the AFC Asian Cup 2019 qualifier between India and Macau has been postponed by a day to avoid a clash with an India Vs Australia T20 International. However, this is not the first time in the country that cricket is getting preference over football, but Patel believes that the scenario will change after the U-17 World Cup.
“If you have a cricket match and a football match, cricket will have more attraction towards it but that is set to change after the World Cup,” he concluded.
The absence of a single player from Goa in the Indian national under-17 football team that will participate in the Fifa under-17, 2017 World Cup, to kick off on October 6, has triggered off a debate in Indian football circles.
The questions being asked include: Is Goan football dying? What is wrong with Goan football? Why is Goa – a state that produced a slew of Indian international stars and legends – now producing virtually no outstanding talent?
Ironically, the Goa government had made football the State sport five years ago and introduced the Goa Football Development Council (GFDC) to tap and nurture talent at the grassroots and has been providing a professional coaching system and a diet breakfast to the trainees.
In terms of sheer numbers, football in Goa is thriving with more tournaments being introduced – there are tournaments at the grassroot, junior, senior and veteran levels and even senior citizen exhibition matches.
The latest feather added to GFA’s cap is the AWES (Association for the Wellbeing of Elder Sportspersons) Cup. Apart from the top Goan clubs like Dempo SC, Salgaocar SC, Sporting Clube, ISL Club FC Goa, Bardez FC and Calangute FC, there were outstation teams like Gokulam FC (Kerala), Viva Chennai (Tamil Nadu), ONGC (Maharashtra) and FC Pune City(developmental squad) which participated in the tournament this year.
The Goa Football Association (GFA) also conducts the Goa Pro League and three division leagues apart from the Taca Under-20 Div 1 and II leagues as well as an under-16 and under-14 league for clubs.
They have over 6000 registered players in all divisions while the GFDC has close to 5000 children in their 34 grass-root development centres for under-10, under-12 and under-14 footballers across the state. The GFDC conducts intra-centre and inter-centre football tournaments of their own apart from running two academies of their own.
So why have they failed to produce a player worthy of making it to the U-17 squad?
As the Indian football team kickstarts its historic journey in the FIFA U-17 World Cup in New Delhi on October 6, the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir will remain virtually untouched by the football revolution set to embrace the country. None of the above-mentioned states can morally claim to have contributed a born-and-bred player to India’s U-17 team. Though Punjab’s contribution to the players’ pool in the Indian Super League (ISL) is close to 40 percent and the national side too has a sizeable presence from Punjab, the U-17s are a skewed lot.The Indian U-17 team has three Punjab-origin players — Prabhsukhan Gill started out from Ludhiana, Anwar Ali started out from Adampur in Jalandhar, and the two made it to the AIFF regional academy in Goa in their U-14 days. Canadian-born Punjabi Sunny Dhaliwal, with roots in Moga, was scouted by AIFF’s innovative online portal. Three players in the 21-member squad from one state would seem to be a decent contribution.But can the Punjab Football Association solely claim the credit for producing these players?Interestingly, Minerva Punjab FC, who first played at the national level during the 2015-16 season in the I-League Second Division, also lay claim to four players — Anwar Ali, Jackson Singh, Nongdamba Noarem and Md. Sahajahan — in the final squad.
Talent hunt
PFA secretary Vijay Bali said, “Initially, seven footballers from various academies in Punjab were shortlisted but most of them could not make the final grade.”At best, AIFF scouts saw the physique, the required skill level, potential in the players but none of them was ready to rub shoulders with the world’s best in their age category.Jammu and Kashmir Football Association secretary Fayaz Ahmad Sofi reiterates the same story: “Four players were shortlisted from J&K and taken to Kalyani, West Bengal, but all of them were sent back.”The common shortcomings among the players from this region were the lack of right attitude, match awareness, aggression and understanding of the game.A region which has a rich tradition of playing football, where there is adequate quantity of players following the sport, with all the required physical attributes in players, cannot produce a single international footballer. A common football fan may find it bit perplexing but experts have multiple reasons to explain this anomaly.
Lack of exposure
The football one gets to see in Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir is old school. There are very few domestic tournaments which offer good quality competition. Even the best of the players from this region do not get any international exposure to see how the top football playing nations hone their skills and evolve their game.
Lack of well-versed coaches
There is no doubt that football academies are mushrooming in the region, more so in the urban schools. But only average players are being produced. Quantity is there, but quality is missing. There is a glaring lack of qualified and dedicated coaches who can groom budding players according to the current international pattern. Take for example, Punjab: There are hardly any AFC B-Licence coaches in the state. The less said about the other states, the better.
Overage problem
Punjab and Haryana are seriously afflicted by the menace of overage players in the age group category tournaments. Punjab, the 2015 National School Games champion (U-19) and the winners of the Junior National Football Tournament for the BC Roy Trophy (U-19), and Chandigarh were slapped with suspension for fielding overage players in the Sub-junior National Championship (2015-16). As a result, the younger players in the tournaments get disheartened while the overage players begin to stagnate even before they have begun to achieve their full potential.
Dietary concerns
Even footballers in states with good health indicators like Punjab and Haryana face dietary concerns. The state’s support in giving diet money to government-run academies is negligible; for private academies it is virtually non-existent. Players with a rural background are forced to leave the game midway due to financial constraints. One reason behind the state-run Chandigarh Football Academy doing a commendable job is their trainees being well-fed, possessing a good physique.
Grounds
Football stadiums and grounds in Punjab and Haryana are facing an existential dilemma. Even well-off cities in Punjab and Haryana — Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Hoshiarpur, for instance — do not have a single ground where international matches can be held. Minerva FC Punjab, the only football club from the region playing in the top national league, does not have a decent ground to host I-League matches. Not surprisingly, junior footballers in the region playing on sub-par grounds find it difficult to remain injury-free and make the international grade.
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The AIFF is confident it will be awarded the rights to host the event.
The FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017 is at the nation's doorstep and preparations around all venues are almost done as India begins to welcome all the participating countries. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) President and the chairman of the local organising committee of the U-17 World Cup, Praful Patel met the press at an event organized in Delhi earlier this week.
“We are 100% ready for World Cup and I am very pleased to announce that the stage is set to host FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017.”
It is also official that the nation has already put in a bid to host the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2019. Patel is hopeful that after hosting the U-17 World Cup successfully, India will be in a commanding position to win the bid and the FIFA Executive Committee will be pleased to grant the same after witnessing India's ability, enthusiasm and commitment towards the game.
“Not only that we are ready but also expect that the momentum which has been built up, I think India can be a world-class host of this event. Besides hosting this World Cup, India has formally put its weight for the FIFA U-20 World Cup to be held in 2019. We do expect and hope that the conduct of this World Cup (U-17) in India and with the entire FIFA Executive Committee coming to India, we will be in a position to convince FIFA of India’s ability, enthusiasm and commitments for hosting such tournaments. So, we certainly feel that the time has come for India.”
The AIFF President also announced that the entire team will continue to work together for the next few years, looking at the U-20 World Cup and also to build a strong national side in the future. While he also hinted at the possible extension of the contract of present India U-17 coach Luis Norton de Matos.
“We have already decided to continue to keep the team as one unit and may bring players in from other age groups for the next few years. We will also ask the coach to continue with us, post this tournament so that we are able to help this young crop develop into the true stars of tomorrow,”
He further added, “Today, they are untested and we are offering them a future. At the end of the day, we as a nation also want to build a strong national team and that is our endeavour. We are trying to put them on a contract and they will be rewarded reasonably well. If the national team has to do better in the future and assuming that we win the rights to host the U-20 World Cup in 2019, then, I think we are on the right track.”
Khel Now sources, close to the developments believe that India are strong contenders to win the bid for the U-20 World Cup in 2019 and that world football's governing body is happy with the AIFF’s work for U-17 World Cup and it is most likely to grant India the rights to host the event in 2019.
Meanwhile, the AFC Asian Cup 2019 qualifier between India and Macau has been postponed by a day to avoid a clash with an India Vs Australia T20 International. However, this is not the first time in the country that cricket is getting preference over football, but Patel believes that the scenario will change after the U-17 World Cup.
“If you have a cricket match and a football match, cricket will have more attraction towards it but that is set to change after the World Cup,” he concluded.
The absence of a single player from Goa in the Indian national under-17 football team that will participate in the Fifa under-17, 2017 World Cup, to kick off on October 6, has triggered off a debate in Indian football circles.
The questions being asked include: Is Goan football dying? What is wrong with Goan football? Why is Goa – a state that produced a slew of Indian international stars and legends – now producing virtually no outstanding talent?
Ironically, the Goa government had made football the State sport five years ago and introduced the Goa Football Development Council (GFDC) to tap and nurture talent at the grassroots and has been providing a professional coaching system and a diet breakfast to the trainees.
In terms of sheer numbers, football in Goa is thriving with more tournaments being introduced – there are tournaments at the grassroot, junior, senior and veteran levels and even senior citizen exhibition matches.
The latest feather added to GFA’s cap is the AWES (Association for the Wellbeing of Elder Sportspersons) Cup. Apart from the top Goan clubs like Dempo SC, Salgaocar SC, Sporting Clube, ISL Club FC Goa, Bardez FC and Calangute FC, there were outstation teams like Gokulam FC (Kerala), Viva Chennai (Tamil Nadu), ONGC (Maharashtra) and FC Pune City(developmental squad) which participated in the tournament this year.
The Goa Football Association (GFA) also conducts the Goa Pro League and three division leagues apart from the Taca Under-20 Div 1 and II leagues as well as an under-16 and under-14 league for clubs.
They have over 6000 registered players in all divisions while the GFDC has close to 5000 children in their 34 grass-root development centres for under-10, under-12 and under-14 footballers across the state. The GFDC conducts intra-centre and inter-centre football tournaments of their own apart from running two academies of their own.
So why have they failed to produce a player worthy of making it to the U-17 squad?
As the Indian football team kickstarts its historic journey in the FIFA U-17 World Cup in New Delhi on October 6, the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir will remain virtually untouched by the football revolution set to embrace the country. None of the above-mentioned states can morally claim to have contributed a born-and-bred player to India’s U-17 team. Though Punjab’s contribution to the players’ pool in the Indian Super League (ISL) is close to 40 percent and the national side too has a sizeable presence from Punjab, the U-17s are a skewed lot.The Indian U-17 team has three Punjab-origin players — Prabhsukhan Gill started out from Ludhiana, Anwar Ali started out from Adampur in Jalandhar, and the two made it to the AIFF regional academy in Goa in their U-14 days. Canadian-born Punjabi Sunny Dhaliwal, with roots in Moga, was scouted by AIFF’s innovative online portal. Three players in the 21-member squad from one state would seem to be a decent contribution.But can the Punjab Football Association solely claim the credit for producing these players?Interestingly, Minerva Punjab FC, who first played at the national level during the 2015-16 season in the I-League Second Division, also lay claim to four players — Anwar Ali, Jackson Singh, Nongdamba Noarem and Md. Sahajahan — in the final squad.
Talent hunt
PFA secretary Vijay Bali said, “Initially, seven footballers from various academies in Punjab were shortlisted but most of them could not make the final grade.”At best, AIFF scouts saw the physique, the required skill level, potential in the players but none of them was ready to rub shoulders with the world’s best in their age category.Jammu and Kashmir Football Association secretary Fayaz Ahmad Sofi reiterates the same story: “Four players were shortlisted from J&K and taken to Kalyani, West Bengal, but all of them were sent back.”The common shortcomings among the players from this region were the lack of right attitude, match awareness, aggression and understanding of the game.A region which has a rich tradition of playing football, where there is adequate quantity of players following the sport, with all the required physical attributes in players, cannot produce a single international footballer. A common football fan may find it bit perplexing but experts have multiple reasons to explain this anomaly.Lack of exposure
The football one gets to see in Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir is old school. There are very few domestic tournaments which offer good quality competition. Even the best of the players from this region do not get any international exposure to see how the top football playing nations hone their skills and evolve their game.Lack of well-versed coaches
There is no doubt that football academies are mushrooming in the region, more so in the urban schools. But only average players are being produced. Quantity is there, but quality is missing. There is a glaring lack of qualified and dedicated coaches who can groom budding players according to the current international pattern. Take for example, Punjab: There are hardly any AFC B-Licence coaches in the state. The less said about the other states, the better.Overage problem
Punjab and Haryana are seriously afflicted by the menace of overage players in the age group category tournaments. Punjab, the 2015 National School Games champion (U-19) and the winners of the Junior National Football Tournament for the BC Roy Trophy (U-19), and Chandigarh were slapped with suspension for fielding overage players in the Sub-junior National Championship (2015-16). As a result, the younger players in the tournaments get disheartened while the overage players begin to stagnate even before they have begun to achieve their full potential.Dietary concerns
Even footballers in states with good health indicators like Punjab and Haryana face dietary concerns. The state’s support in giving diet money to government-run academies is negligible; for private academies it is virtually non-existent. Players with a rural background are forced to leave the game midway due to financial constraints. One reason behind the state-run Chandigarh Football Academy doing a commendable job is their trainees being well-fed, possessing a good physique.Grounds
Football stadiums and grounds in Punjab and Haryana are facing an existential dilemma. Even well-off cities in Punjab and Haryana — Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Hoshiarpur, for instance — do not have a single ground where international matches can be held. Minerva FC Punjab, the only football club from the region playing in the top national league, does not have a decent ground to host I-League matches. Not surprisingly, junior footballers in the region playing on sub-par grounds find it difficult to remain injury-free and make the international grade.