The AIFF wants to reopen the door for Players of Indian Origin, but will the government allow?

After India's loss to Guam in a joint 2018 FIFA World Cup/2019 AFC Asian Cup qualifier on Tuesday, the discussion about allowing Players of Indian Origin to represent India has once more gained momentum due to the fact that Guam started with seven US-born players and its now a process followed in many countries.In recent years the ground realities in international football have changed with player of origin representing the countries of their parents or grandparents becoming a normality or immigrants representing the countries in which they were born. It is a normal thing in a multiethnic world and many smaller football nations have made use of it with tiny Pacific island Guam being the latest example.But even football world powers do it, e.g. Brazil are trying to convince Franklin Bittencourt, born to Brazilian players in Germany to switch to play for Brazil or take the example of the Alcântara do Nascimento brothers, born to Brazilian parents in Spain. Older brother Thiago, now playing for Bayern Munich, plays for Spain; while younger brother Rafinha started off by playing for the Spanish youth teams, but at Under-20 level switched to play for Brazil. And my last example is Algeria, where their 2014 FIFA World Cup squad was born completely in Europe, none in Algeria or on the African continent. I could go on with more examples...The All India Football Federation has woken-up to this reality now after the disappointing defeat to Guam following earlier losses to a Germany-strengthened Afghanistan in the 2013 SAFF Cup final and the Europe-strengthened Philippines in the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers.As someone, who has been advocating with the AIFF since 2001 the involvement of quality PIOs into the Indian national teams, senior and juniors even not to forget our women's national teams, it is high time the AIFF once more took up the matter with the Government of India.I remember that I had created a 'Players of Indian Origin' database on IndianFootball.Com in 1999 after seeing a feature of my friend Vikash Dhorasoo and with the help of fellow IFC man Chris Punnakkattu Daniel, we even kept the database up to date for about a decade. Some boys during the first stint of Constantine even came for trials to India and even before that some joined Team India training under Sukhvinder Singh during training on their England trips in 2000 and 2001. But sadly one had to say then, the cream of talent wasn't approached or not communicated properly.Over the years I even played forward the idea of Team India playing a PIO XI side somewhere in the world to make a statement but such a match never saw the light of day.Now the situation has changed and hopefully for good. Especially Michael Chopra could a very strong PIO role model, who changed his mind and even came to play to India in the Indian Super League for Kerala Blasters FC. Some say Chops didn't do well, but I'd say with a bit more luck he could have been the hero of the ISL final. That's football...The following is what English-born Indian origin Michael Chopra tweeted a few hours ago!

Determined to get selected for the #IndianFootball national team ASAP. I'm looking forward to representing an important part of me!!