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Tathagata Mukherjee: A young dynamic leader with a vision to take Indian Football to the world stage
Indian football fans have had many un-answered questions whether it is about revamping the I-League or about Bob Houghton or about national team not playing enough friendlies or other aspect of the Indian football. Answering all your un-answered question to Babua Biswas of SportsKeeda is none other than the Director of National Team, Vision Asia and Aid 27 Tathagatha Mukherjee.
Babua Biswas: First and foremost I would like to thank you for sparing your valuable time for the interview.Tathagata Mukherjee: Welcome.
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Babua Biswas: Sir, with India winning the Cricket World Cup at a time when Indian Football is set for a revamp, do you think this will once again deter the popularity and development of football in the country?Tathagata Mukherjee: I think popularity and development of football in India doesn’t really depend on India wining the Cricket World Cup, It depends on us, how we as a football fraternity take the game forward. However the only concern being that, with most children in the age group of 6-14 (the grass root level) play football and this figure might go down because as a child you would like to emulate your heroes. And we have the cricketing heroes at the moment. However, I would not like to push to cricket again. It entirely depends on us, the football fraternity, to make sure that we don’t slide back. It’s our responsibility!
Babua Biswas: With IMG-Reliance’s tie up with AIFF, there is a speculation that the Indian football is set for a revamp. What revamp of sort will the Indian Football go through?Tathagata Mukherjee: It is not a speculation; it will really undergo a revamp. First of all with the deal, one thing that has been sorted to an extent is the financial aspect of Indian Football. To do anything you need money. In fact money is the building block for any sport and that is one area where the football federation of the country need not worry anymore.Secondly, the I-League will undergo a change and will be set up in a more professional way. One thing you all need to understand is that AIFF is a professional body with lots of limitations. It doesn’t have that level of machinery to implement large ideas on a Pan India level. To implement things, IMG –Reliance comes with the expertise and the backing with fresh ideas. So, the League will change and they will help to take the game to the next level.And the most important thing here is that football is a cyclic process. So if you change the League and improve it, you will need more young players. More young players needed means putting more emphasis on the youth development which would encourage more kids to take up the game. More kids taking up the game means you ensure better coaching. With better coaching, better players will come up which means a better League. So it has to start somewhere. Probably the League is the starting point.
Babua Biswas: Coming to the National Team, a remarkable change has been visible with their game, attitude and fighting spirit. On what ground did the Technical Committee quote that the ‘team performed badly’ in the Asian Cup when they were up against Asian Super powers and World Cupper’s like Australia, S.Korea and Bahrain? You are also in the technical committee.Tathagata Mukherjee: I think that is a very subjective line. Yes, they fought well but fighting well doesn’t mean good or bad. They fought well and came out with heads held high, which is good. However some people within the federation are of the opinion that the huge amount spend on them could have been diverted to some other resources with a long term goal. Again some are of the opinion that, if you don’t spend enough, how will you expect a good performance. But yes we did expect a better performance with the huge amount we spend. However, I think, it was a fair performance from the boys with their limitations.
Babua Biswas: Moreover how could the technical committee cite the AFC Asian Cup failure as a reason to ouster Bob Houghton, when everyone knew that Team India will be losing all their games?Tathagata Mukherjee: Actually this is not true. It is a misinformation circulating in the media and within the football fraternity. The technical committee gave a recommendation that, lots of corrective measures could have been taken which to an extent is true. Most of them are former footballers and have played football in their life. Again right now at the whole scenario we are in, I don’t like to comment further. But they never really said to sack Bob. They just gave some recommendations.
Babua Biswas: Being the Director of the National Team, you will certainly be in close contact with Bob. In your personal opinion, do you think he is a racist?Tathagata Mukherjee: Yes definitely I know him. We have been working very closely for about a year and he is a perfect gentleman. But at the same time that was a different incident all together. And I want to clarify that we are not calling him a racist. There was a comment made at the heat of the moment which only three or four people knew about and that definitely was not right. The incident was also reported to the match commissioner. However we are not calling him a racist.
Babua Biswas: What did Houghton say in his reply against all the charges?Tathagata Mukherjee: I can’t reveal exactly what he said but yes he definitely refuted all the charges with his lawyer and now our lawyer will take the next step.
Babua Biswas: So with a plan to restart the AFC Vision Asia ; Vision India development program with a new ideology, what sort of strategies are you adopting this time?Tathagata Mukherjee: See India is a country with another 31 different countries, read States within her, each with its unique culture and demography. Some state like Goa and Sikkim are small with less population while Bengal is huge geographically and population wise also. So the same strategy will not work everywhere.What we are trying to do now is mix and match. We won’t necessarily go in to implement the project for the whole State but maybe implement it in a very conducive manner in one particular District or a City or in some cases maybe even a State. But instead of hurrying the implementation in a state which becomes out of control and with the final result not being yield, it is better to conduct the program in a smaller area and expand it slowly. Each center will be studied very carefully and we will implement something which realistically will be achievable. That’s what we are planning to do now.
Babua Biswas: So which States are going to benefit with the restart? The same States which failed to implement or are there any new States that have been added?Tathagata Mukherjee: It could be but AFC is not very happy with the present scenario. I am not very hopeful about the future of the program. It will be totally a new one but yes one or two may survive.
Babua Biswas: Apart from Manipur is there any other State where the project has been implemented successfully?Tathagata Mukherjee: No, but I would not call the case of Manipur a success. According to the AFC Vision, Manipur was given a mature status at that point of time as they could fulfill it but now those criterias have changed. So Manipur no longer is a mature project. AFC is very clear this time that the project should not be hurried upon and be implemented step by step. Manipur’s stature no longer matches the AFC’s stature. They might be in step 3 now but they will have to go back to step 1 to be in line with the AFC Vision. Then only step 2, step 3 can take place.
Babua Biswas: What was the reason for the failure of the first project in States like Delhi and Tamil Nadu if Manipur in spite of such turbulence can implement it pretty successfully?Tathagata Mukherjee: Actually I don’t want to comment or go back and analyze the root cause of the failure then. What probably went wrong according to me was that not much thought was put into it upfront. But right now when we are planning these new projects, we go into lots of analysis whether this project will work or not on ground level.
Babua Biswas: What is your personal view on the happenings in Indian Football? Are we really going in for a change?Tathagata Mukherjee: Once again, I really don’t want to comment on what had happened in Indian football for so long. But yes we are definitely heading for a change and for the better. We will be in a good position at least in Asia within the coming ten years. You can just have a glimpse of it if you look at the performance of the youth teams, Under 15 boys right now in the Dallas Cup.
Babua Biswas: Why does our National Team play so few friendlies and international matches?Tathagata Mukherjee: No that’s wrong, we do play enough matches. Last year we played nine friendlies, the highest in any calendar year or maybe in decades. Even now, we have matches for the National Team till May 2012 which we are rejecting. We don’t have a space to fit in.You will understand if you look at the 360 angle. The first set of FIFA dates were taken up by the I-League. We had Goal 2011 running, then Asian Cup and after returning we just can’t break the I-League. Then Challenge Cup Qualifier took away the next set of dates. Now how will we play a match on June 3 and 7 which are the next FIFA dates when I-League ends on May 29?Then the next dates are taken up by the World Cup Qualifiers. The only available date is the 10th of August which we are trying to play but I think Federation Cup will go on. Again the dates in September are taken up by the 2nd round of World Cup Qualifiers. So we miss this also if we qualify. However we have a back up for the friendlies if we don’t. There are some big names, really big names who like to play in India. I can’t reveal who the teams are but I am also surprised as to why they want to play here.
Babua Biswas: We, few Indian Football fans are of the opinion that the name ‘Bhangra Boys’ no longer compliments our national football team? How do you like the idea of changing it to “The Blue Tigers”?Tathagata Mukherjee: I don’t know how and where from the tag Bhangra Boys came. But yes we can definitely have a new name as we also want that. ‘The Blue Tigers’ sounds good or maybe even ‘Blue Arrows’.
Babua Biswas: Sir Thanks a lot for speaking to us. We wish you a good luck in your work so that Indian Football can see a new day.Tathagata Mukherjee: Thanks to you too.
Edited by Amod Kulkarni
