PIO (Player of Indian Origin) Thread

ashindia

Are PIOs for Team India back on the AIFF Agenda?
One of the topics raised on Thursday at the India workshop at Soccerex's European Forum in Manchester was the issue of Players of Indian Origin representing India in international football. To be precise the topic was raised by London-based players agent Yogesh Joshee in connection with Michael Chopra's interest to represent India.

AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das gave an interesting, but somewhat surprising answer. He said, "We need to look into it. I ask FICCI to take-up the matter with the Government of India!"

Many laughed then they didn't think the answer was serious, but Kushal Das reiterated the point and from an All India Football Federation standpoint it does make sense then the ruling by the Government of India that only Indian nationals can represent India in sports not only affects the AIFF but possibly all other sports.

Here a general body like FICCI (Federation of Industrial Chambers of Commerce and Industry) could intervene with the support and inputs from the sports federations.

In this connection FICCI representative Rajpal Singh make a wrong statement while on stage saying that India does allows PIOs and OCIs to represent the country though he did say that FICCI would take-up the matter internally and then with the government of India.

One hopes that FICCI and the AIFF treat the matter seriously and lobby with the government to change such a ridiculous rule, which only harms Indian sports rather then anybody else.

http://arunfoot.blogspot.in/2012/03/are-pios-for-team-india-back-on-aiff.html

ashindia

So what do you think guys ???? Micheal Chopra to replace Sunil and partner Prince Rajcomar upfront ??? Then at defence we have Danny Batth partnering Netan Sansara ? "> :x

archak

ashindia wrote:

So what do you think guys ???? Micheal Chopra to replace Sunil and partner Prince Rajcomar upfront ??? Then at defence we have Danny Batth partnering Netan Sansara ? "> :x

that is only if the govt relax the rule about citizenship

ashindia

archak wrote:

ashindia wrote:

So what do you think guys ???? Micheal Chopra to replace Sunil and partner Prince Rajcomar upfront ??? Then at defence we have Danny Batth partnering Netan Sansara ? "> :x

that is only if the govt relax the rule about citizenship

Above article states that AIFF and other guys looking to talk with Indian Govt about that

:-B

ashindia

How about Arsenal target Rohan Ahluwalia ??? :>

archak

ashindia wrote:

How about Arsenal target Rohan Ahluwalia ??? :>

need to see some videos of him before accepting..... :-p
videos like chamakh and stewart downing....

ashindia

Arsenalkid,Somesh,Rudra,Proj,Sabir,Pedro,ShankarAdmin want your views on this topic, should Indian Govt relax on these rules ??? If they do how will Indian Football benefit.

archak

if the rule gets relaxed then in the short term indian will gain some rankings may even break into top 100 that would bring in much needed sponsors. but in the long term we need the aiff fifa academies along with tfa and a few other academies working in full sync to improve the rankings (top 50). the pio needs to be well markted so that everyone comes to know about thereby increasing awareness of the national team..

usaindia

i would say relax it for maybe 10 years get all good players around the world any one interested in playing for indian national team,get ranking up, our major problem is we dont have 1 really good indian player to look up as a role model and create mass hysteria like sachin did for cricket.

ashindia

archak wrote:

if the rule gets relaxed then in the short term indian will gain some rankings may even break into top 100 that would bring in much needed sponsors. but in the long term we need the aiff fifa academies along with tfa and a few other academies working in full sync to improve the rankings (top 50). the pio needs to be well markted so that everyone comes to know about thereby increasing awareness of the national team..

Bit of mix and match is always good for now PIO will be of huge benefit and local youngsters playing with them will help them learn a lot.

Players like Micheal Chopra with EPL experience will be a huge hit among fans and could generate lot of media attention along with his contribution to team.

Also there are lot of Lower Division players who could try their luck at I-League and who knows they could even represent India if they are good enough.

ashindia

Algeria NT in WC 2010 had 16 French based players :- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_World_Cup_squads#Algeria