"In Europe, there are two different divisions - in the top leagues, everything, mostly, is money driven, while at FC Basel, we cannot compete with the money. We use education to create the right players and no club in Europe has given more players to the top brass than us," Burgener quipped.
"Mohamed Salah was 20 when he came here, and look where he’s now. We gave him education," Burgener recalled.
“Shaqiri, too,” he continued in the same vein. “He was at our academy, and then Bayern Munich signed him. We have sold over 30 players to the Bundesliga, one of the top leagues in the world. We need to have this passion and instil it into the youngsters. They need to do the right thing from childhood."
"We have teams from 8-9-12 year-olds and it starts getting more professional as we reach the youth teams. Professional contracts come in at 17-18, usually. I have seen Chennai City have similar desire and drive. They are build up of local players, and the 15-16 year-olds believe in themselves. The end goal, at both places, is to join the first team," he told.
FC Basel is among the top-30 football clubs in Europe, according to UEFA, and the partnership is sure to benefit Chennai City FC, who have already shown the right intent with the regular influx of youth into the senior team.
FC Basel is ranked #29th in UEFA's list of Club Coefficients
Both parties stressed that the partnership will focus on cooperation for setting up of a residential Youth Academy in Coimbatore and rolling out of football schools across the state in the first phase. The association, and FC Basel in particular, will also look to educate coaches.
Burgener harped on his Indian partners and the work they have done so far. The club, that was founded in 1946 and joined the I-league with direct entry in 2016, was lauded by the Swiss. “They have set up an Academy and we need to help them take it forward. It’s a part of our commitment, and we will help them with the knowledge. We want to help in opening bigger doors for Indian football, like we did for Salah to European football, but this can’t be done overnight.”
“We believe in the talent here, and thus, we’re sending our best man, Massimo Ceccaroni, to train and set up the right footprint. You’ve to convince young people to live their dream, and it's not just about money. Their 100 percent gives them a chance to succeed. I will watch the match against Indian Arrows on Friday (I-league) and I’m looking forward to meeting the team as well.”
Why not a Chinese club, that is burgeoning with tremendous money and is slowly turning into Asian biggies, we asked Burgener. He smiled, and answered, “This decision wasn’t taken in a moment. It took months of planning and discussion and several levels. Chinese clubs or academies are mostly controlled by the government, but not in India.”
We told him about the past sojourns of European bigwigs in the Indian subcontinent and he gave a shrug. “Look, for me, this is a marriage. In a marriage, you don’t say - okay, let’s try this for 3-4 months and see how it works out. You’ve to really iron out the details and then agree to it. This is how it’s going to be, between us and Chennai City FC.”
Why Chennai City FC? There were so many options out here on the Indian threshold, we asked. We even mentioned Kolkata, arguably Indian football’s posterboy to the globe. He put across his point. “Well, we met through an Indian guy who was such a massive Chennai City FC fan. We sat across the table and realised that we had the same set of goals and everything, then, fell into place. It was a great coincidence, that everything went so smoothly from the word go.”
Bhubaneshwar govt decided to build football stadium near Kalinga stadium during super Cup final , few months later I am hearing the proposed land now will have infra for hockey
In a few months we will probably hear that the proposed stadium will be built for some Bollywood extravaganza where some Bolly celebrities would come to do a jig every year.
Whatever they build there, it will be named as Kalinga stadium !!!
Hockey-kalinga Athletics-Kalinga Football-Kalinga even practise ground -Kalinga.
By the way, an interesting story about Barabati Stadium of Cuttack
Till 1951 Cuttack or for that matter Odisha did not have a stadium. Sri
Bhairab Charan Mohanty a well known person of Cuttack took the
initiative to start the stadium. The Govt. allotted a plot of land , but
no funds were available. They thought of collecting funds from a
lottery. They got the permission. It was successful. The name of the
stadium was suggested as Barabati stadium due to its proximity to
Barabati Killa which was named so due to the size of its area which was
12 Batis. So the lottery was also named Barabati lottery the only one of
its kind in India. Bhutan lottery came thereafter. Barabati lottery
continued for many years and this resulted in the successful
construction of the current stadium. Thus the first stadium of Odisha
became a reality in the year 1951.
Minerva Punjab's blueprint for grassroot development a roaring success so far
Minerva Punjab became the first club in India to win the league across all age groups ...
Through its youth development system, Minerva Punjab have laid out a blueprint for teams in India to follow. For, Minerva Punjab have trophies to show their good work.
In the last one year, Minerva Punjab have won the league at all levels – Senior level (Hero I-League), u-18 (Hero Elite League), u-15 (Hero Junior League) and u-13 (Hero Sub-Junior League). This incredible achievement is testimony to the fact that Minerva Punjab’s success is sustainable and they are on the right path in achieving their long-term goals.
Promoted to the first division in the 2016-17 season after Dempo SC pulled out, Minerva Punjab managed to survive the league in their first season, before clinching the title in their second. The dark horses overcame heavyweights like Mohun Bagan and East Bengal before signing their name on the history books of Indian football.
At the U-18 level, Minerva Punjab won the Elite League in the 2018-19 season after defeating FC Pune City in the finals. The eventual champions conceded just one goal in the knockout stages and saw off Mohun Bagan in a penalty shootout in the quarterfinals.
The success has been greater at the U-15 level, with Minerva Punjab winning a hattrick of titles from 2016 to 2018. Their maiden title arrived in 2016, when they defeated Royal Wahingdoh on penalties in the finals. Minerva Punjab defended the U-15 title by putting three past Ozone FC without conceding any in the finals in 2017. In 2018, Minerva Punjab made it three in a row, cruising past DSK Shivajians with the score-line reading 3-0.
Minerva Punjab are also the defending champions of the Sub-Junior League – or the U-13 Youth League as it was called – by virtue of beating Mohammedan Sporting Club 3-0 in the finals in May 2018.
This is how Minerva Punjab became the first club in Indian history to win the league in all age groups.
The team has developed a lot of players like Jeakson Singh, Anwar Ali, Mohammed Shahjahan and Nongdamba Naorem who were all part of India's 2017 U17 World Cup team.
Minerva Punjab should be a model club for all the top clubs when grassroot development is concerned. Club owner Ranjit Bajaj deserves a lot of credit for everything the club has achieved at all levels over the years.
The fact that Minerva Punjab have dominated the Indian youth football scene in recent years, producing a lot of talents, shows that Ranjit Bajaj-owned club is doing something right. And they are doing it better than most other clubs in India.
East Bengal and MB too had the resources and talent to tap in at their helm but I guess they never bothered otherwise we would have got some good results
Comments
"In Europe, there are two different divisions - in the top leagues, everything, mostly, is money driven, while at FC Basel, we cannot compete with the money. We use education to create the right players and no club in Europe has given more players to the top brass than us," Burgener quipped.
"Mohamed Salah was 20 when he came here, and look where he’s now. We gave him education," Burgener recalled.
“Shaqiri, too,” he continued in the same vein. “He was at our academy, and then Bayern Munich signed him. We have sold over 30 players to the Bundesliga, one of the top leagues in the world. We need to have this passion and instil it into the youngsters. They need to do the right thing from childhood."
"We have teams from 8-9-12 year-olds and it starts getting more professional as we reach the youth teams. Professional contracts come in at 17-18, usually. I have seen Chennai City have similar desire and drive. They are build up of local players, and the 15-16 year-olds believe in themselves. The end goal, at both places, is to join the first team," he told.
FC Basel is among the top-30 football clubs in Europe, according to UEFA, and the partnership is sure to benefit Chennai City FC, who have already shown the right intent with the regular influx of youth into the senior team.
FC Basel is ranked #29th in UEFA's list of Club Coefficients
Both parties stressed that the partnership will focus on cooperation for setting up of a residential Youth Academy in Coimbatore and rolling out of football schools across the state in the first phase. The association, and FC Basel in particular, will also look to educate coaches.
Burgener harped on his Indian partners and the work they have done so far. The club, that was founded in 1946 and joined the I-league with direct entry in 2016, was lauded by the Swiss. “They have set up an Academy and we need to help them take it forward. It’s a part of our commitment, and we will help them with the knowledge. We want to help in opening bigger doors for Indian football, like we did for Salah to European football, but this can’t be done overnight.”
“We believe in the talent here, and thus, we’re sending our best man, Massimo Ceccaroni, to train and set up the right footprint. You’ve to convince young people to live their dream, and it's not just about money. Their 100 percent gives them a chance to succeed. I will watch the match against Indian Arrows on Friday (I-league) and I’m looking forward to meeting the team as well.”
Why not a Chinese club, that is burgeoning with tremendous money and is slowly turning into Asian biggies, we asked Burgener. He smiled, and answered, “This decision wasn’t taken in a moment. It took months of planning and discussion and several levels. Chinese clubs or academies are mostly controlled by the government, but not in India.”
We told him about the past sojourns of European bigwigs in the Indian subcontinent and he gave a shrug. “Look, for me, this is a marriage. In a marriage, you don’t say - okay, let’s try this for 3-4 months and see how it works out. You’ve to really iron out the details and then agree to it. This is how it’s going to be, between us and Chennai City FC.”
Why Chennai City FC? There were so many options out here on the Indian threshold, we asked. We even mentioned Kolkata, arguably Indian football’s posterboy to the globe. He put across his point. “Well, we met through an Indian guy who was such a massive Chennai City FC fan. We sat across the table and realised that we had the same set of goals and everything, then, fell into place. It was a great coincidence, that everything went so smoothly from the word go.”
https://khelnow.com/news/article/i-league-2018-19-chennai-city-fc-basel-president-interview
Dwarka Sports complex to have FIFA, ICC-standard facilities: Report
I heard about it 5 years ago
https://www.insidesport.co/dwarka-sports-complex-to-have-fifa-icc-standard-facilities-report/
This doesn't look anything like the video from 4 years go.
What about new Bengaluru stadium? I guess the work hasn't even started
Incredible India!!
Minerva Punjab's blueprint for grassroot development a roaring success so far
Through its youth development system, Minerva Punjab have laid out a blueprint for teams in India to follow. For, Minerva Punjab have trophies to show their good work.
In the last one year, Minerva Punjab have won the league at all levels – Senior level (Hero I-League), u-18 (Hero Elite League), u-15 (Hero Junior League) and u-13 (Hero Sub-Junior League). This incredible achievement is testimony to the fact that Minerva Punjab’s success is sustainable and they are on the right path in achieving their long-term goals.
Promoted to the first division in the 2016-17 season after Dempo SC pulled out, Minerva Punjab managed to survive the league in their first season, before clinching the title in their second. The dark horses overcame heavyweights like Mohun Bagan and East Bengal before signing their name on the history books of Indian football.
At the U-18 level, Minerva Punjab won the Elite League in the 2018-19 season after defeating FC Pune City in the finals. The eventual champions conceded just one goal in the knockout stages and saw off Mohun Bagan in a penalty shootout in the quarterfinals.
The success has been greater at the U-15 level, with Minerva Punjab winning a hattrick of titles from 2016 to 2018. Their maiden title arrived in 2016, when they defeated Royal Wahingdoh on penalties in the finals. Minerva Punjab defended the U-15 title by putting three past Ozone FC without conceding any in the finals in 2017. In 2018, Minerva Punjab made it three in a row, cruising past DSK Shivajians with the score-line reading 3-0.
Minerva Punjab are also the defending champions of the Sub-Junior League – or the U-13 Youth League as it was called – by virtue of beating Mohammedan Sporting Club 3-0 in the finals in May 2018.
This is how Minerva Punjab became the first club in Indian history to win the league in all age groups.
The team has developed a lot of players like Jeakson Singh, Anwar Ali, Mohammed Shahjahan and Nongdamba Naorem who were all part of India's 2017 U17 World Cup team.
Minerva Punjab should be a model club for all the top clubs when grassroot development is concerned. Club owner Ranjit Bajaj deserves a lot of credit for everything the club has achieved at all levels over the years.
The fact that Minerva Punjab have dominated the Indian youth football scene in recent years, producing a lot of talents, shows that Ranjit Bajaj-owned club is doing something right. And they are doing it better than most other clubs in India.