Wim Koevermans: IPL style football league bad for national team

Wim Koevermans believes his squad can play a passing game and is looking to develop Indian football coaching among other aspects. (Photo: AIFF Media)

Wim Koevermans’s life as coach of the Indian football team started brightly when they won the Nehru Cup. Soon after, however, things didn’t seem as rosy as India failed to qualify for the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup, a competition that former coach Bob Houghton had won in 2008 to qualify for the Asian Cup.

Koevermans then found himself embroiled in controversy as he heavily disagreed with IMG-Reliance’s proposed IPL-style tournament, an idea that had received the backing of AIFF, the Dutchman’s employers. Koevermans clarified his stance, saying his interest was in what the current scenario would do to his players, as reported in the New Indian Express.

“If players are without clubs, then that is a problem to me. Right now, there is a big group of players who are not attached to clubs. They are all without real competition and without challenging training session.

“If they play only in the IMG-Reliance tournament, that is a-half-an-year without proper competition and every international player needs proper competition every week and challenging training sessions every day,” he said.

He added that any player taking part in the IMG-Reliance tournament would be putting their international future at risk due to a lack of consistent playing time.

“I do feel sorry for them. But I have to see them every week and for that, they have to play every week. If they cannot, they won’t be in the team. For their sake, I hope this situation between the clubs and IMG-Reliance gets resolved soon,” he said.

Koevermans also advised clubs to think twice before bringing in foreign players, telling them not to bring a player in just because he is foreign:

“Without naming anyone, there are a lot of foreign players who are average. If the player you bring in is special and capable of taking the I-League to another level, then it is good.

“But if he is only as good as the rest, then the clubs should give an Indian youngster a chance.”