Unless the clubs have good training facilities, the standard will never improve: Bob
Talking to Khaleej times Indian Head Coach Bob Houghton revealed how relavant is club culture and training facilities for the development of Football in India. Here is a look at the interview that appeared in the Dubai media
DUBAI – In recent times, only one man has been able to give Indian football a ray of hope. Bob Houghton, England’s former Fulham striker, is the man under whom India qualified for the Asian Cup for the first time in 24 years. Yet his cup remains half empty!
Often he is asked, he says, that million-dollar question. A question he finds difficult to evade. Like the hapless defender against an imposing, elusive poacher, he cries in search of an answer. After all, it’s not easy to predict when India, home to a billion souls, will finally produce a team capable enough to play in a World Cup—the mother of all sporting events.
“I know about a club in Kolkata with a hundred-year history. It’s one of the most famous clubs in the country. But even now, they don’t have a training ground. That’s unbelievable, I know. But that’s the reality,” says India’s national coach.
“That’s not how you treat your players. They deserve better. Only two clubs in India have their own training grounds.
“Unless the clubs have good training facilities, the standard will never improve. Unless, you have a good national league, you will never have a good national team. That’s the bottom line. But unfortunately, we are not moving forward.”
Not everything has been bad though. There’s one cog in the machine that is still working fine. “In my three years with the national team, I have realised that there is no dearth of talent in the country. There are some very good footballers. All they need is support from the football body. They need good facilities, good academies, good coaches. Even the Churchill Brothers, the Indian national champions, don’t have their own physical trainer, assistant coach, doctor and training ground,” reveals Houghton.
It’s nothing sort of a miracle then that the national team still managed to qualify for the 2011 Asian Cup. It was then that one could see a glint in his eye. “Sunil Chhetri, you know, the little striker, was prolific. He scored the hat-trick in the final of the AFC Challenge Cup. It was a magnificent performance. Then there was Subrata Paul, our goalkeeper. He pulled off some wonderful saves in the second half to keep us in the game. These two boys deserve big credit. It’s because of them that the team is in the Asian Cup. Despite all the problems, what the players have achieved is considerable. To win that first Nehru Cup in 2007 and then to qualify for the Asian Cup by winning the AFC Challenge Cup is a real tribute to the group of players we have.”
Houghton then talks about another interesting ‘case’ in Indian football. “We also have players like Abhishek Yadav. He has been in Indian football for a long time. But, you know, in the three years that I have been in India he suffered because of the Indian club system. All the clubs spend so much money to bring in foreign players that an Indian striker finds it difficult to play on a regular basis. And yet Abhishek has managed to become the captain of Mumabi FC. It’s an achievement. Foreign players are good, but Indian football needs local players more than anything else.
“Unless the local players play on a regular basis, it will be very difficult for Indian football to keep pace with top Asian teams.”
The Briton has brought his team to Dubai to attend a week-long training camp. “We are here for a week and then will move to Barcelona. There we will play practice matches against some club teams to prepare the team for the upcoming Nehru Cup in Delhi.”
The national team, Bob Houghton believes, is the only ‘vehicle that will drive the game forward in the country’. And the coach is ready for one more bout. He wants to keep the national team players together from June next year till the start of the Asian Cup in 2011. “Only that will give us a chance to prepare the team for the biggest event in Asia. I don’t want to take the team to Qatar with low ambitions.”
rituraj@khaleejtimes.ae
Source: Khaleej Times
