Indian footballers can dream too

Apart from boosting 'Goal 2011' project, BCCI's 25-Crore grant to Indian football will help the sport tide over a major cash crunch

Indian footballers can dream too

Apart from boosting 'Goal 2011' project, BCCI's 25-Croreu00a0grantu00a0to Indian football will help the sport tide over a major cash crunch

For long, Indian cricket has been the envy of other sports in the country. The Indian cricket board and its cricketers often get accused of being self-centred and the game is blamed for not allowing other disciplines to grow what with sponsors pumping in big money into the willow game.

Henceforth, Indian footballers will have no cause for complain.

The Indian football fraternity is actually banking on the monetary support of Rs 25 crore provided by the Board of Control for Cricket in India to act as a catalyst for the development of football in the country.

The All India Football Federation plans to spend a chunk of the grant in their team's preparation for the 2011 Asian Cup. The AIFF is convinced that success at the international level is directly proportionate to the development of the game and hence the focus is on doing well in the prestigious Asian event for which India has qualified after 24 years.

Big plans
"Why is cricket so popular in the country? Because our cricket team does well in the international arena. As a result, everyone feels proud to support the game. Similarly, if the football team does well at the international level, the entire nation will stand with the game, the sponsors will come in, it will start a commercialisation process and all the things will fall into place," AIFF vice-president Subroto Dutta told MiD DAY yesterday.

"It is a red-letter day in Indian football. The Indian government had already agreed to help us and now the BCCI has come forward to lend a helping hand. We are a great cricketing nation, now, I am sure it will help us become a great footballing nation in the near future," said Dutta, giving all credit to their acting president Praful Patel for getting BCCI to agree to support Indian football.

"The entire world is hit by recession. We (AIFF) are also facing difficulties to raise funds for the game. At this juncture, the amount from the BCCI will help in a big way," the vice-president said.

Named Goal 2011, AIFF has planned an elaborate programme to prepare the team for the prestigious Asian Cup where the main thrust will be international exposure. Indian football team coach Bob Houghton wants his team to play around 35 international matches and aims to keep the team together for close to a year where the federation will select 25 players at the start of the season and keep them under its fold until the Asian Cup in Doha.

Key objectives
When the players are on national duty, most likely for eight months, the federation will pay their salaries. Hence, the need for a big budget.

"We have qualified for the Asian Cup after 24 years. We plan to prepare by having training camps, international matches in India and abroad. We recently had a one-month overseas training camp in Dubai and Barcelona. If we have the funds to prepare well under coach Houghton, we are confident we will be able to put up a fine show in the Asian Cup," said Dutta.

Dutta added that AIFF will give equal importance to the development of the game in the country. "We will have a working committee meeting where all the decisions about how to use the money will be taken. Apart from building the national team, we will use it for the youth development programme," he said.

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