Lack of football culture hurting India

‘After I left in 2005, there has been little improvement’

‘I assure you that I will leave the team in a better shape’

National coach Stephen Constantine feels that most of the Indian footballers do not have strong command on the basics of the game primarily due to a lack of football culture in the country.

Englishman Constantine, who took over as India coach early this year in his second stint, said not focussing on grassroot development over the years has led to the players learning the basics only late in their career.

"After I left in 2005, I can see the country has moved ahead in some areas. But at the same time, in some other areas, there has been little improvement," Constantine, who also served as India coach between 2002 and 2005, said at a media interaction.

"Not enough focus on grassroot development and scouting of talent at a young age are unfortunately two such areas. Unfortunately, it is about the lack of football culture in this country. Eight countries have so far won the FIFA World Cup and you can see their football culture.

"In these countries, the youngsters start learning their basics at the age of four or five. In India, the players do not learn their basics at a young age and naturally they struggle in their basics when they grow up," added the 52-year-old, who has also coached the national teams of Nepal, Sudan, Malawi and Rwanda.

"During our World Cup qualifying away match against Guam, I asked one of their players when did he start playing football under a qualified coach and he said at the age of four. And, when I asked the same question to C K Vineeth (national team player), he said he started with a coach at 13. There lies the difference," Constantine said.

India had suffered a disappointing 1-2 loss to Guam, who were 33 places below India in FIFA rankings, in their 2018 World Cup second round qualifying away match last month.

Constantine conceded that Indian football has not done well in the last four-five years but felt that the worst may be over.

"In the last four-five years, the national team has gone down in performance. The team was at 171st in FIFA rankings at one time (in December last year). But I assure you that I will leave the team in a better shape. In my coaching career, I have left whatever team I have been associated with in a better position," he said.

Asked how many talented players have come in after he left the coaching job in his first stint in 2005, Constantine said tongue-in-cheek, "I would say India has produced more (footballer) leaders."

He made it clear that scouting of young talent would be one of his main focus areas and said he and his team will fetch talent from all over the country.

"Scouting of young talent will be one of my focus areas. We have conducted a workshop on scouting in Goa a few days back and many former India players some of whom have played under me in my earlier stint took part. They will be my scouts and we now have a national director for scouting (in former India striker Abhishek Yadav) and this team will scout talent from across the country," he said.

"I am not saying that there was no scouting earlier but I want it to be broad-based not confined to only Subroto Cup and Coca Cola (sub-junior) Nationals. The talent pool should be widened for such a big country of more than one billion people and should not be confined to a few states only. My team and I will go to schools and colleges throughout the country wherever football is played," he said.

"Along with India Under-17 coach Nicolai Adams, we have scouted 27 new players for the 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup to be hosted by India and we found that these 27 players are better than those who have been training at the AIFF Academy in Goa," he revealed.

The current national team has been a new-look and inexperienced one with only four of them having played more than 10 international matches and Constantine asked the fans to wait for a while before they start giving results.

"I think the team will need at least 10-12 matches to start doing well but only if I have them with me and train them everyday."