Everything needs to be revamped about Indian football – Indian national team coach Savio Medeira

Savio Medeira, the Indian national team coach, believes that the amount of money involved in the Premier League Soccer (PLS) could easily alleviate the major problems faced by the country when it comes to football.

He explained that spending crores of rupees to avail the services of a few foreign players such as Hernan Crespo, Fabio Cannavaro and others isn’t the most rationale thing to do.

"First of all, we need to look whether we have the infrastructure and facilities for such an event. If this amount of money (crores) we spend on foreigners then where are we going?” he questioned the logic.

“I have heard that each franchise has to come up with an academy. If that happens then it is good for us. Otherwise it won’t take us anywhere. I’m not too sure about it,” he added.

The 46 year old who guided India to SAFF Championship triumph believes that the country needs a complete overhaul of systems for it to develop.

“I would say that coach education has to improve for starters. Thereafter football at the grassroot must be worked upon. Youth academies by the I-League clubs and not just that, but they must create a culture wherein families come and see their kids play which will be very healthy,” the former Salgaocar coach said.

“The timings of the I-League matches have to be standardized as the players are playing in every two days and that lessens the recovery time. I think we need to sit together and discuss each aspect as everything needs to revamp. We have a technical director (Rob Baan) now and hopefully he will look into it,” he explained further.

The Challenge Cup On My Mind

India are to travel to Dubai later this month for preparations for the Challenge Cup where they are to compete against the likes of Tajikistan, DPR Korea and Philippines. The Men in Blue are to face Oman and Azerbaijan which will allow Medeira to identify the areas which need to be worked upon.

However in the absence of Jeje Lalpekhlua, Medeira had the difficult task of naming strikers for his squad given that most of them do not play regularly for their clubs. Sushil Singh has only recently joined Shillong Lajong, Manandeep Singh has impressed for Air India but lately has been used from the bench, C.S.Sabeeth hasn’t managed to score goals given that he plays for a team, Pailan Arrows, who are content to be in their own half, while Joaquim Abranches of Dempo SC hasn’t been in top form this season.

“Yes, I agree that we didn’t have much choice and it was difficult to find a replacement for Jeje. All the 14 clubs in the I-League prefer playing with two foreign strikers upfront. However you need to let the talented Indian strikers get some playing time. The moment he starts to play then they improve, something which happened with Jeje,” he reasoned.

“Losing him for the Challenge Cup was a big loss. There are more foreign players at the club level and for more Indian strikers to come up, that number needs to reduce. At the club level, nobody is thinking about Indian football and hence no strikers are coming up,” signed off Medeira.

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