Former India captain Baichung Bhutia stressed the way forward for development of Indian football would only come from better involvement and effort from state and district associations.
Former India captain Baichung Bhutia stressed the way forward for development of Indian football would only come from better involvement and effort from state and district associations.
The talismanic star, who was in the city as part of the Baichung Bhutia Football School’s tie-up with Harvest International School, revealed that lack of concentration by state associations towards age group tournaments would have to change if India were to move ahead in the sport.
“I have attended the AGM and few executive committee meetings and a lot of the state associations have to realise that they are also part of the organisation. When we hold an U-16 tournament, it costs us at least Rs 1-2 crores and the states doesn’t send the best players for it. So we need district and state association to make more of an effort,” said Bhutia.
“Nicolai Adam (India U-17 head coach) should get to see the best U-16 players we have right now but we are not getting the best. We also want to see state associations more active in age group tournaments.
The former skipper believes that the coaches need to be pro-active.
“India will take time because we need to coach our coaches. I keep saying that India has a lot of Messis but we are losing hundreds of Messis because we don’t know how to identify them. We don’t have a support system to make what Messi has become today. We need to have that support system.”
Bhutia also shed some light on the work done by the All India Football Federation ahead of the 2017 U-17 World Cup to be held in the country.
“I think 2017 Cup is the best thing that is happening to Indian football. It really does a lot for our grassroots development. We have a team set up who have been together for the last two years and the increase of interest for U-16 tournaments has been huge.
“Also what we did was send coaches, one year ago, to different parts of the country and hold selection trials. If he finds a talented boy he can refer him to Nicolai. The boy will then be sent for a camp in Goa and if he is picked for the India team, then we award the scout financially.
“We are bypassing the state associations a little. Lot of the associations have people who have other priorities in life, whether they are bureaucrats or politicians,” he remarked.
