Indian Football: Roadmap Ahead - How can AIFF make ISL, I-League and National Team better?

#6 National Team (Men's)

The results of the team over the past two years have been encouraging

After a decent Asian Cup campaign, the national team must look to build on those performances. The International windows must be better utilised, and the team needs better exposure to friendly games. The U-23 team should also actively take part in different tournaments across the world in order to build confidence. The youth national teams have been doing a phenomenal job under the tutelage of Bibiano Fernandes and Floyd Pinto, and the AIFF must remain committed to this cause.

The new senior team coach should be able to propel the team to new heights and must be focused on the ultimate goal of reaching a world cup, or maybe the semi-finals of an Asian Cup. The team selection process must be fair, and the talent unearthed from the proposed system must come to the fore for the nation to realize this dream.

In the below segment, we discuss the possibility of Indian-Origin footballers playing for our National Team.

PIO players:

The likes of Yan Dhanda has the calibre to play for the national team

There is no doubt that Indian-Origin players playing abroad would have gone through a much better lifestyle and training, hence being more skilful. So ideally they should be drafted into the national team. But then there have been arguments about Indians being compromised of chances.

My opinion is that the federation should let these players play for the country, but by only following the Government's rule of having to stay in India for 12 months. This rigid rule separates out the really serious ones and the ones who are just trying their luck. A lot of Indian expats in the UK, UAE and Canada are willing to play for India. A lot of them like Sahal Abdul Samad and Aryn Williams are already in India to chase this dream.

In order to help out these people, the AIFF could set up a PIO slot in the top division (similar to the Vietnamese League), and giving these players a shot at the national team. While this may not be a long term fix, this will help boost our ranking in the short term and will get Indians all over the world excited about our domestic football.

There is no doubt that players of the quality of Yan Dhanda, Rajiv van la Parra and Aryn Williams would certainly help lift the game of the national team.