Indian football team coach Stephen Constantine wants a 16-team I-League

Stephen Constantine

Kolkata, May 22 (IANS)

Indian football team head coach Stephen Constantine wants the I-League to be a 16-team tournament so that the game can spread along evenly along the country.

“I would ideally want to see a 16-team I-League. The second division I-League should be held across five regions with the top two teams qualifying for the first division, that way we can spread the game across the country,” Constantine told media persons here on Friday.

Speaking on the use of sports technology in Indian football, he said, “We have got a system from Australia which gives us information about players' fitness, like how tired they are, how much more workload they can take and we have also appointed a sports scientist.”

Constantine talks about the backroom staff

The Englishman also said he trusts the batch of players who were under his guidance from 2002-05 and have thus he has given the responsibility of scouting to some of them.

“Abhishek Yadav is the national director for scouts. We are developing the scout system in 15 states. We are also on the verge of bringing in Premier League scout Derek Bragg on a three-day workshop for the scouts,” he said.

Speaking on another of his pupil Shanmugam Venkatesh who is currently the assistant coach of the national side, he said, “I need someone who knows the team and who knows me, who does not have an agenda. Venky (Venkatesh) can develop as a coach and I will be his mentor.”

Asked about newly appointed German under-17 coach Nicolai Adam, Constantine said, “He is a German and he won't give up easily. He is arranging at least four foreign exposure trips for the football team as part of preparations for the 2017 Under-17 World Cup, which I think is great."