Indian football's ready recipe for success!

Indian football's ready recipe for success! 

Doha: All India Football Federation (AIFF) has lined up a ready recipe for success for its national team on the international front, says its president.

Praful Patel, a former federal minister in the outgoing Congress party coalition government, who has been holding the reins of the national federation for the last six years, strongly feels that hosting major international events are ‘small steps’ towards the greater goal of World Cup qualifications.

“We hope to bid for the FIFA Club World Cup in 2017 and 2018, and we want to prepare a successful bid for the U-20 World Cup by 2020, in addition to the U-17 World Cup which we will host. All these are stepping stones. Small steps, but important steps for developing football in India,” said Patel in an interview published on www.sc.qa, the website of Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, the body responsible for hosting the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The AIFF official said the profile of the game has gone in for a dramatic change with the introduction of the Indian Super League and qualification for the 2022 event in Qatar will be crowning glory.  

 “The fact that Qatar is hosting the 2022 World Cup means that we have now started building up our own game. We hope that by then [2022] we can qualify for the World Cup, I think it will be a great opportunity for India.

“Qatar and India have historic and cultural ties, and that’s why we believe that Qatar and India must both work together to build up the culture of football in our countries,” he added.

The Indian community constitutes a major part of the expatiate population in Qatar, numbering around three million and Patel believes the FIFA World Cup in Qatar will be a catalyst for the improvement of Asian football. 

“In Qatar, as you know, almost half the population is Indian. So if we qualify by 2022, it will be a huge leap not only for India, but for the Asian game.

“I am very happy that Qatar has been chosen to host the 2022 edition of the World Cup and I think this is a real defining moment for Asian football,” Patel added.

 “The continent loves the game and we play it well, although of course we need to improve. But when the game is played on our own continent, all of Asia will rise and stand in support of each other. I think that will be the biggest contribution of the Qatar 2022 World Cup.”

India’s last major regional qualification was for the 2011 Asian Cup hosted by Qatar, where the former Asian Games gold medal winners lost all their matches in the group stages.