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AIFF chief Praful Patel says professionalism will play a big role in development of football.
All India Football Federation chief Praful Patel said that the aim is to break into top 100 of the world rankings in the next three years. He added that infrastructure and professionalism would play a crucial role in realising this ambition.
“Our aim is to break into the top 100 in three years. We have been sliding in the rankings consistently,” Patel said here on Saturday. “We need to develop the infrastructure as well as concentrate on development at the grass roots level. That is possible only by making it totally professional,” he added.
“I cannot invite Ronaldinho to play in India. We need to develop the infrastructure. Mumbai has a good stadium for cricket and nothing else. There is great enthusiasm among the corporates for football but the infrastructure needs to improve,” he said.
Patel said he is upset that Mumbai does not have a proper football ground. “We have only one football ground in Cooperage and we are working on having synthetic grass on it. However, there is a court case going on with residents. We don’t have proper infrastructure in Mumbai,” he added.
Looking ahead to the AFC Asian Cup for which India has qualified after more than two-and-a-half decades, Patel said more international friendlies would be held for the national team ahead of the 2011 event in Qatar.
“We have qualified for the Asian Cup after 26 years. We have a good coach (Bob Houghton) and all the selected footballers are being paid what they would have earned contractually with their clubs plus 15%. We hope we would do well,” he said.
The I-League clubs have been given time till February next year to become totally professional outfits and fulfil all the licensing criteria laid down by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
“In October, we will have an audit of all these clubs and by February, the full details of the clubs fulfilling the AFC laid down licensing criteria will be out,” Patel said.
Patel, who is also the union civil aviation minister, felicitated two Mumbai youngsters Hussain Vahanvaty (St Mary’s) and Shaun Fernandes (St Peters), who will be undergoing a six-week training stint with the English club Queen’s Park Rangers.
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