AFC Always Has India Playing in Middle East to Qualify

nnipp

<font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">For the past 7 years + years, the AFC has forced India to play against Middle Eastern/Central Asian countries in qualifying matches for any tournament. This has given us very few games against East and Southeast Asian opponents. I think it puts the South Asian countries at a larger disadvantage, since we usually have to travel to hostile, dry and extremely hot Middle Eastern countries, sometimes with Arabs refereeing even though we are playing an Arab team. Playing in South East and East Asia is a much more similar climate to India and sometimes even less travel as many of our players are from Eastern India. Looking at the qualifying groups for these tournaments, many times the ASEAN countries have a much easier qualifying road even if they do draw Japan, South Korea and Australia since their are 2 spots per group. These countries aren't forced to completely leave their region into the deserts of the middle east.</font>

Admin

This is true. We are at a great disadvantage while playing in tjose conditions. Does anyone have any idea, how the venue is decided?

nnipp

The AFC's new zones are ridiculous, South/SE Asia and East Asia should be playing each other in zonal tournaments, while West Asia and Central Asia should play each other if they want to insist on the stupid format. You don't see zone divisions in other continents. Our team is constantly travelling to UAE, Iran, Uzbek, Oman, Qatar, Saudi....when is the last time we have been to Southeast Asia, China, Japan etc outside of Asian Games. I miss the old format when we could be clubbed against any top country in Asia.

Admin

The zone divisions in Asia are necessary due to its vastness. But the zones can marked more wisely. AFC should consider the nations with similar climates, quality of football played, distances between the nations etc to mark the zones.

Arsenalkid700

<img src="http://www.national-football-teams.com/v2/images/maps/asia.gif"><div>It just seems logical that India and SAFF be in West Asia.</div><div><br></div><div>Honestly I would rather have ONLY India in the South-East Asian region. All the other SAFF Countries are horrible. They would make the South Asian zone worse.</div>

rudra

The topic seems a new Indian excuse. If we are in this zone then prepare accordingly...This all excuses we come up for being so poor in football. We have a job in hand, we know what to expect, and we need to prepare accordingly.

sanvedjadhav

i agree wid rudra.....salgaocar defeated al oruba (oman) 3-1 that too without any foreign players......teams like mahindra united and dempo have defeated teams from gulf countries in the past.... we lament about the lack of playing against QUALITY teams for our national sides....and when we get a chance at club level we say ' THEY ARE TOO STRONG,CLIMATE A PROBLEM' ....this attitude is very bad for development of indian football.... hope u understand what i am trying to state<br>

nnipp

I have no problem with the strength of Middle Eastern/Central Asian teams, they certainly are beatable under any conditions. I don't care how strong any of our opponents are, if we are going to be the best we should be prepared to beat anyone. I just have a problem with our teams having to constantly visit the hostile Middle East rather than being able to get exposure against East and Southeast Asian sides.<div><br></div><div>The current zone segregates our football style exposure and in a way associates our country with the Middle East/Central Asia when we are in fact at the gateway of east and west Asia, therefore, should be able to choose the zone. Like Australia, India should also be allowed to join the ASEAN football federation to increase our regional competition since the SAFF will never take football seriously.</div>

Arsenalkid700

My problem is not at club level. It is the damn SAFF Cup. We do not belong there. Every two years the SAFF countries come out and talk about how they will destroy India and then look. We win the damn trophy. All of a sudden we play in AFC Challenge Cup and we fall down to earth.<div><br></div><div>If we join ASEAN then we will play in the AFF Cup which would put India against stronger teams and would increase our ranking. </div><div><br></div><div>The AFC wont move India to Central Asia or West Asia's confederations. It is either SAFF or ASEAN and honestly I think we would all pick ASEAN.</div>

preetam

Indian club should play against malaysian,singapore and indonesian club.....and for that they have to move ASEAN zone....in SAFF only maldives puts some fight and rest are disgusting ..........

usaindia

That's true, we never get a Chanel to play Japan or China also I would like to see uefa coefficient model for afc/acl club selection