I have liked Rob Bahn this far, I have been following whatever interaction he had with the media till date. He has an open mind and is not playing politics for his selfish gains at least until now. Most of the British coaches who show up in lower ranked Asian nations because there's no place for them in Europe or even higher ranked Asian nations must be abhorred at any cost, the likes of Bob Houghton and Steve Darby are huge burdens on tax payer's money that there is very little left for youth development. I like the way AIFF is proceeding now, have foreigners like Rob Bahn and Colin Toal work on youth development and leave the senior team with an Indian coach.
I have liked Rob Bahn this far, I have been following whatever interaction he had with the media till date. He has an open mind and is not playing politics for his selfish gains at least until now. Most of the British coaches who show up in lower ranked Asian nations because there's no place for them in Europe or even higher ranked Asian nations must be abhorred at any cost, the likes of Bob Houghton and Steve Darby are huge burdens on tax payer's money that there is very little left for youth development. I like the way AIFF is proceeding now, have foreigners like Rob Bahn and Colin Toal work on youth development and leave the senior team with an Indian coach.
I dont agree with the British thing. I mean if you are saying this about them then what about the Dutch, Brazilian, Spanish, and German ones.
Colin Toal is English, and also Trevor Morgan (argubly the best foreign coach in the I-League is English as well)
any input on these so called collabartion schools like baichung school,mufc school or so and what abt academies like TFA,etc
Here we go then... ESSAY TIME! <!-- s:dance: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/eusa/dance.gif" alt=":dance:" title="Dance" /><!-- s:dance: -->
I believe that all these Football Schools need to start being affiliated with the AIFF. How do we do this? Well first the AIFF should start a new youth organization named along the lines of Indian National Development International Academies (INDIA) which should have Robert Baan (as Technical Director) and Colin Toal (as INDIA President). This organization should then be for starting youth camps and leagues all around India by creating affiliations with clubs already in India like Manchester United, Inter Milan and Barcelona. Right now these clubs are starting camps in India (or in Blackburns case a league) and are not affiliating itself with the I-League or AIFF.
Blackburn Rovers are starting a new youth league in Pune and they are not involving Pune FC and Pune FC is the only club in India with an Academy. Then you got Manchester United starting a school in Mumbai and the AIFF is not taking advantage of this nor is Man U trying to talk to the AIFF. I mean if you are trying something in India at least affiliate yourself with the AIFF.
Over here in America we have this organization that is part of the US Federation (United States Soccer Federation [USSF]) called United Soccer Academies (USA) (Get it, USA also is United States of America, i found that funny) and this organization is affiliated with FC Barcelona who have camps in almost every state (like 42 of our 50 states have Barca or other team schools)
We need to do that. Also what they did before, not anymore, is that when Barcelona or any other club started there schools or leagues in America they sent there Spanish or English coaches here to teach becuase they knew the Americans were shit. BUT that does not mean they had none American coaches. They hired American coaches as assistants (or trainiees) and they taught them how to coach. Then when the Spanish or English coach thinks they are ready then the American coach would take over becuase they were just tought how to coach by that foriegn coach. Of course though here in India we dont see Man U or Barca coaches hirering Indian coaches as trainees. That needs to change.
Also we should not just affiliate with foriegn teams. INDIA should join hands with Baichungs Soccer Schools and help them out and also in Goa they have schools ran by Portugese coachs (I have been told via Facebook). Also help with players like Nirmal Chetri or Anwar Ali who over the summer help camps as well. I think if the AIFF does this then it will make Indian Football better on the field and better as a marketing tool as well.
Dont laugh at me but i have a suggestion <!-- s:pray: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/eusa/pray.gif" alt=":pray:" title="Pray" /><!-- s:pray: -->
do you think that in the Regional Academies by AIFF, it will be good for them to introduce Karate classes.why? because it gives strength, will to fight against any opposition and character to not loose till the last breath. In other words build the killer instinct.
Secondly- build a plan to ensure that players practice individually a lot with the ball. Just my thoughts to improve basic skills.
Dont laugh at me but i have a suggestion <!-- s:pray: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/eusa/pray.gif" alt=":pray:" title="Pray" /><!-- s:pray: -->
do you think that in the Regional Academies by AIFF, it will be good for them to introduce Karate classes.why? because it gives strength, will to fight against any opposition and character to not loose till the last breath. In other words build the killer instinct.
Secondly- build a plan to ensure that players practice individually a lot with the ball. Just my thoughts to improve basic skills.
Your idea is hardly laughable, infact one of the best academies in the world uses Judo and Gymnastic training. Its Ajax, one of the best academy
check this video from around 5 mins
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT.......YOUTH DEVELOPMENT.........YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
That's what Indian football desperately needs, specifically investment in infrastructure at the youth level starting pre teens. Mid teens is too late, most european nations start around eight to ten years of age. Once there are good facilities, the wealthier folk will be attracted to send their kids to play football like they do all over the world. Lack of proper grounds is a huge disadvantage for kids to play on, every bit of green is being grabbed by promoters to build skyscrapers for their selfish profit. While they bloat up their Swiss bank accounts and send their kids abroad for everything, India languishes pathetically in the most popular sport in the world. In India, there is barely any grass on the grounds at the local level and even if there is, the ground is rock hard, unfit to play on. Football is the cheapest game and requires minimal investment to start with but unfortunately in a hugely populated country like ours and with the burgeoning construction activity in recent times, playing pitches are a premium. I used play in the amateur league in the US and the grounds we used to play on can easily compete, if not better than some of the pitches I league is played on. There was an artificial turf with walking distance of my house. Such facilities in India at the amateur level is a faraway dream.
In India, most (there are glorious exceptions off course like Robin Singh, Sunil chetri etc. etc. ) players come from lower middle class, no wonder they have such poor IQ that they cannot string a series of passes correctly, the shooting is wayward to the point of being funny sometimes( case in point: Ishfaq ahmed: over the years I have seen him aim for the corner flag instead of the goal after doing all the hard work running fast and furious and getting into shooting range in spite of being one of the toughest guys on the pitch).
The right balance of finesse and strength is seriously lacking among Indian football players. Either you have raw wild strength without any finesse and football sense or the other way round. Just to exemplify, players like Robin Singh, Anwar Ali have wonderful built, power but they lack the fine touch, the football brain behind accurate shooting, passing, off the ball positioning and what have you. Players like Ashim Biswas have the latter but get injured or fall sick every other month.
Perennial mispassing is a huge bane among the current crop of Indian players and the real bad news is that they mispass under no pressure. Close observation of any international game will tell you that this is an absolute NO NO internationally, they barely mispass; even under pressure, they are mostly on target. Mispassing upsets the rhythm of a team, slackens the pace of the game and makes the game boring for spectators, no wonder the disinterest among Indians towards national football except in a few pockets
1.There's a SHORTAGE of quality strikers in our Indian team.Now, this is a SERIOUS ISSUE.Most of d I league clubs have d 2 places filled by foreign strikers.So AIIFF should bring a rule to make it mandatory for d clubs to have atleast an indian striker in d PLAYING ELEVEN
2.AIFF should see that all d INDIAN TEAMS [india u13,u16,u19,u23,senior team]should play in d same style of play and also appointing d coaches for d teams who implements d particular style.There was a case in d armando colaco period when junior teams including u23 playing long ball system & senior team-short pass style.
1.There's a SHORTAGE of quality strikers in our Indian team.Now, this is a SERIOUS ISSUE.Most of d I league clubs have d 2 places filled by foreign strikers.So AIIFF should bring a rule to make it mandatory for d clubs to have atleast an indian striker in d PLAYING ELEVEN
2.AIFF should see that all d INDIAN TEAMS [india u13,u16,u19,u23,senior team]should play in d same style of play and also appointing d coaches for d teams who implements d particular style.There was a case in d armando colaco period when junior teams including u23 playing long ball system & senior team-short pass style.
@ajmal we have already disscused point 1 and that would can easily be taken care.
I am suggesting that the AIFF start a brand new university league in which every central, state, deemed and certain private colleges participate in to decide which university has the best football program in India.
Here is how it would work.
The university regular season would begin in August and go on till Mid-November. Then from Mid-November to Mid-December would be the play-offs.
During the regular season each college team would play ONLY TEAMS FROM THERE STATE! There will be no outer state matches (so a Delhi university team cannot play against a university from Kerala or something like that) Also the regular season is based off a single table. No inter-state divisions! Just 1 table per state.
At the end of the regular season the top 4 teams from each university would then make the play-offs (112 teams btw [28 states * 4 teams = 112) And then the final 16 teams would be decided through the wild care table which is basically the top 16 university teams that did not finish in the top 4 of there state division would still qualify for the play-offs, regardless of what state they come from) Note that the play-offs are a knock-out competition.
From there we would then start the 128 team play-offs which would take place neutral venues. The first round (128 teams) would take place in 3 natural venues in one state. (For example for the first round you could use the Mohun Bagan Ground, East Bengal Ground, and Barsat Stadium which are all in West Bengal) Also sense the play-offs are a knock-out format the matches would be decided based off your record. (So like the 1st Place team from Delhi would play the 4th place team in Kerala or the 1st place team from Kerala would play a wild-card team) No 1st place team can play a 2nd or 3rd place team other wise what was the point of finishing 1st in your state. Also this round has only 1 leg so if you lose you are automatically out.
The second round would now contain 64 clubs and the matches would be now determined based off how big your margin of victory was in the last game. So your finishing place in the regular season does not matter anymore really. (So basically if you won your game by 6 and no other team won there game by 6 then your team would play a team that only won by 1 goal. This round is also 1 legged. You lose your out.
The third round is the same as round two only that in the 3rd Round you have 32 teams.
The fourth round would be the same as the 3rd Round and 2nd Round only you would have 16 teams.
The quarter-finals though will be different. The matches will be decided by a random draw. All these matches will be played at random venues all in one state. (Non-I-League stadiums)
The semi-finals would then be based off a bracket created during the QFs. The semi's would be a 2 legged round and all 4 games would be played at a random I-League venue but a small one. Like the Cooperage Ground or Bangalore Football Stadium or Paljor Stadium
The Final would then be a 1 match affair at night. 7:30pm Indian standard time at the Salt Lake Stadium, Kaloor International Stadium, Nehru Stadium in Shillong or the Nehru Stadium in Delhi. This match should also be shown live on National Television (TEN Action + etc) (The other rounds are not televised btw)
At the end of the season the best 96 players would be selected by Nike and these 96 players would either give up there education and try to become professional footballers or they could give up football and continue there education. Once the 96 players are decided they would then be divided into 6 teams and from January to March these 6 teams would play each other twice for a total of 10 games and the best team would then be renamed the Nike India Class of (Whatever year it is) and that team would for the first month (April) travel around India playing I-League Youth Teams and then after that month they would spend one month traveling foreign teams in Europe and Asia (matches organized by Nike) and then when after that month the Nike kids would then play one final match against the India U23 team.
After that match all the 16 kids that played for the Nike Class of ?? team would then be sent abroad to foreign clubs in Europe and Asia (Do NOTE that Nike would be in charge finding a foreign team for a player so that would not be a problem) Then the rest of the 80 players that were not on the Nike Class Team would be drafted to different I-League teams so all 96 players would be able to get pro teams.
That is basically it. The reason I thought of this is because I was looking at the United States Soccer Forum and the topic was Academies in America and that fact that MLS teams cannot get players from all over America so basically not all the kids in America get a chance at pro football because of the fact they don't have an MLS team near them to scout them so the US Soccer Federation created the College league so that these kids could join there college team and try to get noticed through that. So far it has worked as great Americans like Brad Friedal, Clint Dempsey (scored a hat-trick for Fulham today), Landon Donovan etc. have played in the college league and now are stars on the national team which is 30th in the world.
Comments
I dont agree with the British thing. I mean if you are saying this about them then what about the Dutch, Brazilian, Spanish, and German ones.
Colin Toal is English, and also Trevor Morgan (argubly the best foreign coach in the I-League is English as well)
Here we go then... ESSAY TIME! <!-- s:dance: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/eusa/dance.gif" alt=":dance:" title="Dance" /><!-- s:dance: -->
I believe that all these Football Schools need to start being affiliated with the AIFF. How do we do this? Well first the AIFF should start a new youth organization named along the lines of Indian National Development International Academies (INDIA) which should have Robert Baan (as Technical Director) and Colin Toal (as INDIA President). This organization should then be for starting youth camps and leagues all around India by creating affiliations with clubs already in India like Manchester United, Inter Milan and Barcelona. Right now these clubs are starting camps in India (or in Blackburns case a league) and are not affiliating itself with the I-League or AIFF.
Blackburn Rovers are starting a new youth league in Pune and they are not involving Pune FC and Pune FC is the only club in India with an Academy. Then you got Manchester United starting a school in Mumbai and the AIFF is not taking advantage of this nor is Man U trying to talk to the AIFF. I mean if you are trying something in India at least affiliate yourself with the AIFF.
Over here in America we have this organization that is part of the US Federation (United States Soccer Federation [USSF]) called United Soccer Academies (USA) (Get it, USA also is United States of America, i found that funny) and this organization is affiliated with FC Barcelona who have camps in almost every state (like 42 of our 50 states have Barca or other team schools)
We need to do that. Also what they did before, not anymore, is that when Barcelona or any other club started there schools or leagues in America they sent there Spanish or English coaches here to teach becuase they knew the Americans were shit. BUT that does not mean they had none American coaches. They hired American coaches as assistants (or trainiees) and they taught them how to coach. Then when the Spanish or English coach thinks they are ready then the American coach would take over becuase they were just tought how to coach by that foriegn coach. Of course though here in India we dont see Man U or Barca coaches hirering Indian coaches as trainees. That needs to change.
Also we should not just affiliate with foriegn teams. INDIA should join hands with Baichungs Soccer Schools and help them out and also in Goa they have schools ran by Portugese coachs (I have been told via Facebook). Also help with players like Nirmal Chetri or Anwar Ali who over the summer help camps as well. I think if the AIFF does this then it will make Indian Football better on the field and better as a marketing tool as well.
do you think that in the Regional Academies by AIFF, it will be good for them to introduce Karate classes.why? because it gives strength, will to fight against any opposition and character to not loose till the last breath. In other words build the killer instinct.
Secondly- build a plan to ensure that players practice individually a lot with the ball. Just my thoughts to improve basic skills.
Your idea is hardly laughable, infact one of the best academies in the world uses Judo and Gymnastic training. Its Ajax, one of the best academy
check this video from around 5 mins
Also read part of this article, search keyword judo
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://tcjaguars.com/index.html"; onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://tcjaguars.com/index.html</a><!-- m -->
2.AIFF should see that all d INDIAN TEAMS [india u13,u16,u19,u23,senior team]should play in d same style of play and also appointing d coaches for d teams who implements d particular style.There was a case in d armando colaco period when junior teams including u23 playing long ball system & senior team-short pass style.
@ajmal we have already disscused point 1 and that would can easily be taken care.
I am suggesting that the AIFF start a brand new university league in which every central, state, deemed and certain private colleges participate in to decide which university has the best football program in India.
Here is how it would work.
The university regular season would begin in August and go on till Mid-November. Then from Mid-November to Mid-December would be the play-offs.
During the regular season each college team would play ONLY TEAMS FROM THERE STATE! There will be no outer state matches (so a Delhi university team cannot play against a university from Kerala or something like that) Also the regular season is based off a single table. No inter-state divisions! Just 1 table per state.
At the end of the regular season the top 4 teams from each university would then make the play-offs (112 teams btw [28 states * 4 teams = 112) And then the final 16 teams would be decided through the wild care table which is basically the top 16 university teams that did not finish in the top 4 of there state division would still qualify for the play-offs, regardless of what state they come from) Note that the play-offs are a knock-out competition.
From there we would then start the 128 team play-offs which would take place neutral venues. The first round (128 teams) would take place in 3 natural venues in one state. (For example for the first round you could use the Mohun Bagan Ground, East Bengal Ground, and Barsat Stadium which are all in West Bengal) Also sense the play-offs are a knock-out format the matches would be decided based off your record. (So like the 1st Place team from Delhi would play the 4th place team in Kerala or the 1st place team from Kerala would play a wild-card team) No 1st place team can play a 2nd or 3rd place team other wise what was the point of finishing 1st in your state. Also this round has only 1 leg so if you lose you are automatically out.
The second round would now contain 64 clubs and the matches would be now determined based off how big your margin of victory was in the last game. So your finishing place in the regular season does not matter anymore really. (So basically if you won your game by 6 and no other team won there game by 6 then your team would play a team that only won by 1 goal. This round is also 1 legged. You lose your out.
The third round is the same as round two only that in the 3rd Round you have 32 teams.
The fourth round would be the same as the 3rd Round and 2nd Round only you would have 16 teams.
The quarter-finals though will be different. The matches will be decided by a random draw. All these matches will be played at random venues all in one state. (Non-I-League stadiums)
The semi-finals would then be based off a bracket created during the QFs. The semi's would be a 2 legged round and all 4 games would be played at a random I-League venue but a small one. Like the Cooperage Ground or Bangalore Football Stadium or Paljor Stadium
The Final would then be a 1 match affair at night. 7:30pm Indian standard time at the Salt Lake Stadium, Kaloor International Stadium, Nehru Stadium in Shillong or the Nehru Stadium in Delhi. This match should also be shown live on National Television (TEN Action + etc) (The other rounds are not televised btw)
At the end of the season the best 96 players would be selected by Nike and these 96 players would either give up there education and try to become professional footballers or they could give up football and continue there education. Once the 96 players are decided they would then be divided into 6 teams and from January to March these 6 teams would play each other twice for a total of 10 games and the best team would then be renamed the Nike India Class of (Whatever year it is) and that team would for the first month (April) travel around India playing I-League Youth Teams and then after that month they would spend one month traveling foreign teams in Europe and Asia (matches organized by Nike) and then when after that month the Nike kids would then play one final match against the India U23 team.
After that match all the 16 kids that played for the Nike Class of ?? team would then be sent abroad to foreign clubs in Europe and Asia (Do NOTE that Nike would be in charge finding a foreign team for a player so that would not be a problem) Then the rest of the 80 players that were not on the Nike Class Team would be drafted to different I-League teams so all 96 players would be able to get pro teams.
That is basically it. The reason I thought of this is because I was looking at the United States Soccer Forum and the topic was Academies in America and that fact that MLS teams cannot get players from all over America so basically not all the kids in America get a chance at pro football because of the fact they don't have an MLS team near them to scout them so the US Soccer Federation created the College league so that these kids could join there college team and try to get noticed through that. So far it has worked as great Americans like Brad Friedal, Clint Dempsey (scored a hat-trick for Fulham today), Landon Donovan etc. have played in the college league and now are stars on the national team which is 30th in the world.
If you want to know how the recent college league was in America here you go... <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_NCAA_Division_I_Men's_Soccer_Championship" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_NCAA_ ... ampionship</a><!-- m -->