COTIF Cup 2018: India U-20 to face Argentina, Venezuela U-20 teams

The Indian U-20 national team are set to embark for Spain to be part of the L'Alcúdia International Under-20 Football Tournament or the COTIF Cup.

Argentina, Venezuela and Mauritania will send their U-20 national teams while local outfit Murcia U-20 will also be one of the contestants in the Mini Mundial Sub U-20 men’s football tournament.

Slated to kick-off on 29 July 2018 in L'Alcúdia, Valencia, the players to be part of the India U-20 side at the COTIF Cup will consist of a mix of boys who represented the country in the FIFA U-17 World Cup and the AFC U-19 Qualifiers in 2017. 

As such, this India U-20 side will majorly comprise of the Indian Arrows team members other than FC Pune City duo Ashish Rai and Sahil Panwar.

Director of the National Teams and AIFF (All India Football Federation) Executive Committee member, Abhishek Yadav, explained the arrangement of such foreign trip alongside domestic schedules.

"The COTIF tournament in Spain falls well into our plans and we are excitedly looking forward to it. The Sub 20 category, India will be up against teams from renowned football powerhouses that will be preparing for the FIFA U-20 World Cup 2019 qualifiers," he said.

"For the development of all national teams across age-groups, we have drawn up a template in which playing matches on a regular basis has been given high weight," Yadav continued.

"In an ideal mix, in addition to domestic competitive matches, we will participate in competitions involving AFC (Asian Football Confederation) opposition, non-AFC opposition, matches against higher-age teams, in different playing conditions, etc."

Keeping in mind the welfare of the women's national teams, he added, "We are pushing the envelope. We have done this with the U-17 World Cup team and are doing it with the U-16 boys' national team as well. We will soon extend it to the female national teams and a fresh U-15 boys' national team."

India U-20’s fixtures at the COTIF Cup will begin with a clash against Murcia U-20 on July 29, followed by encounters against Mauritania, Venezuela and Argentina U-20 sides on July 31, August 3 and August 5 respectively.