Can't find next Sunil Chhetri until ISL changes foreign player rule: Igor Stimac
India coach Igor Stimac is not happy with the number of foreign players featuring in a match in Indian Super League and I-League, saying it was coming in the way of the country producing a future Sunil Chhetri. Stimac said the leagues should follow Asian Football Confederation's (AFC) policy of allowing a maximum of four foreign players in a match instead of the five permitted by them currently.
"My suggestion for top tier (league) in the country is to follow AFC rule of 3+1, that's the basic rule for number of foreign players. It's not strange that that most successful Asian countries are following that rule and that is why they are successful," Stimac said.
"That is why they have option for national team to have strikers, offensive midfielders and the centre-backs," he added.
Currently, ISL and I-League teams can field five foreign players in a match, while AFC Champions League competition rules state that "each participating club may register four foreign players but at least one must have the nationality of an AFC member association".
"We will never find a replacement for Chhetri if the situation is like this. We cannot take someone who has never played as a striker and put him in the national team. Where am I going to find a striker? Even in I-League, there are five foreign players.
"We don't have (Indian) strikers in I-League. Only Indian Arrows is putting (striker) Vikram (Pratap Singh) to play. We are in a big problem. We need to start changing the things in favour of national team."
The Croatian also said that it would be ideal to merge the two leagues.
The Indian team is out of reckoning for a 2022 World Cup berth but Stimac said they will have a chance to qualify for the 2026 edition.
"To wake up India in football, we need national team success. And there is a big chance in front of us, the 2026 World Cup. There will be 48 countries involved, which means there will be another 3-4-5 places for Asian countries to participate. We have four years to prepare ourselves and be in the top 8 in Asia," he said.
Meanwhile, FIFA on Thursday proposed postponing all the upcoming 2022 World Cup and 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers, including India's home game against Qatar on March 26 due to the rising coronavirus threat. However, Stimac said he did not have any official confirmation.
"We are focused with proceedings with the camp as we have no official information on what is going to happen. Some games have been cancelled. We have the calendar till the end of the year, but it is not in our hands," he said.
By talking about 2026, is he excusing himself from 2023 AFC Asian Cup Qualification ?
He is suddenly worried about lack of strikers in I-League. We can send him a list of Indian players for all positions from I-League if he is that interested.
A brilliant interview of Praful Patel by Indian express. Tgey asked all tge tough questions which we all always wanted to ask. And PP appears defensive and frustrated in his answers...
Q. Critics, however, say that for the sponsorship money you brought in, you ‘sold Indian football’.
A. To whom? Who is saying this? It’s a very myopic approach to a large problem. When you look at the larger picture, has Indian football grown or shrunk? In the larger picture, is Indian football headed in the right direction or not? And what is this ‘sold Indian football’? Does anybody have a solution to undo what has been done in the past? Why should we sell Indian football? I had nothing to do with Indian football. I was only a vice-president and happy to do my thing in Maharashtra. It’s only when Mr. (former AIFF president Priya Ranjan) Dasmunshi got unwell that I got in, otherwise, I was not coming into Indian football.
Q. For someone who wasn’t interested in football governance, you are now in FIFA (a council member).
A. I am happy that at the world stage, first AFC and now FIFA, there is so much optimism outside India that sometimes I feel sad there’s so much pessimism within India. They don’t know anything and they are optimistic. We know everything and we are pessimistic. When I go there, I get very high respect. It’s remarkable
he unknowingly admits that world is optimistic about Indian football because they don't know the actual picture yet
Investigative journalism at its best by The Indian Express...The asked him all the right probing questions which forced him to hedge with vague generalizations at times.
PP's answers shows that he was squirming with discomfort on facing these questions. Kudos to the journalist for asking all the right questions. Shows that atleast a few journos have their ears to the ground and knows the grim reality.
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Can't find next Sunil Chhetri until ISL changes foreign player rule: Igor Stimac
India coach Igor Stimac is not happy with the number of foreign players featuring in a match in Indian Super League and I-League, saying it was coming in the way of the country producing a future Sunil Chhetri. Stimac said the leagues should follow Asian Football Confederation's (AFC) policy of allowing a maximum of four foreign players in a match instead of the five permitted by them currently.
"My suggestion for top tier (league) in the country is to follow AFC rule of 3+1, that's the basic rule for number of foreign players. It's not strange that that most successful Asian countries are following that rule and that is why they are successful," Stimac said.
"That is why they have option for national team to have strikers, offensive midfielders and the centre-backs," he added.
Currently, ISL and I-League teams can field five foreign players in a match, while AFC Champions League competition rules state that "each participating club may register four foreign players but at least one must have the nationality of an AFC member association".
"We will never find a replacement for Chhetri if the situation is like this. We cannot take someone who has never played as a striker and put him in the national team. Where am I going to find a striker? Even in I-League, there are five foreign players.
"We don't have (Indian) strikers in I-League. Only Indian Arrows is putting (striker) Vikram (Pratap Singh) to play. We are in a big problem. We need to start changing the things in favour of national team."
The Croatian also said that it would be ideal to merge the two leagues.
The Indian team is out of reckoning for a 2022 World Cup berth but Stimac said they will have a chance to qualify for the 2026 edition.
"To wake up India in football, we need national team success. And there is a big chance in front of us, the 2026 World Cup. There will be 48 countries involved, which means there will be another 3-4-5 places for Asian countries to participate. We have four years to prepare ourselves and be in the top 8 in Asia," he said.
Meanwhile, FIFA on Thursday proposed postponing all the upcoming 2022 World Cup and 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers, including India's home game against Qatar on March 26 due to the rising coronavirus threat. However, Stimac said he did not have any official confirmation.
"We are focused with proceedings with the camp as we have no official information on what is going to happen. Some games have been cancelled. We have the calendar till the end of the year, but it is not in our hands," he said.
He is suddenly worried about lack of strikers in I-League. We can send him a list of Indian players for all positions from I-League if he is that interested.
Clubs just make big issues of minor injuries if they aren't satisfied with foreign players.
Q. Critics, however, say that for the sponsorship money you brought in, you ‘sold Indian football’.
A. To whom? Who is saying this? It’s a very myopic approach to a large problem. When you look at the larger picture, has Indian football grown or shrunk? In the larger picture, is Indian football headed in the right direction or not? And what is this ‘sold Indian football’? Does anybody have a solution to undo what has been done in the past? Why should we sell Indian football? I had nothing to do with Indian football. I was only a vice-president and happy to do my thing in Maharashtra. It’s only when Mr. (former AIFF president Priya Ranjan) Dasmunshi got unwell that I got in, otherwise, I was not coming into Indian football.
Q. For someone who wasn’t interested in football governance, you are now in FIFA (a council member).
A. I am happy that at the world stage, first AFC and now FIFA, there is so much optimism outside India that sometimes I feel sad there’s so much pessimism within India. They don’t know anything and they are optimistic. We know everything and we are pessimistic. When I go there, I get very high respect. It’s remarkable
he unknowingly admits that world is optimistic about Indian football because they don't know the actual picture yet
Investigative journalism at its best by The Indian Express...The asked him all the right probing questions which forced him to hedge with vague generalizations at times.