VARCA: The quality of football education in India will have to be upgraded to global benchmarks and that’s what will be done at the AIFF-FIFA Football Academy in Bhubaneswar, disclosed Arsene Wenger who took Arsenal to three Premier League titles and seven FA Cups and now has been assigned the task to make India a great football nation.
All India Football Federation’s lone woman in the Executive Committee, Valanka Alemao who met Wenger at the inaugural function in Bhubaneshwar discussed the possibilities of setting up an academy exclusively for women.
“It could take a long time since the difference in the quality of football education in India has to undergo substantial upgradation,” disclosed Valanka.
Wenger, the Chief of Global Football Development at FIFA, disclosed that the new academy will achieve new standards with FIFA providing technical knowhow and coaches. The academy will be a residential one and will accommodate about 50 players who will be trained for two years.
Spain’s Sergi Amezcua Fontrodona will relocate to India to implement the project as the head coach of the academy.
Valanka stated that Wenger wants to change things in India starting with better identification of talent with the appointment of neutral and impartial talent scouters across India. The academy will identify talent, get the best available and integrate the player in the first team. Wenger stressed on working for quality as the spectators appreciate quality football and for that FIFA will develop proper structures with its own coach and technical team to develop the players. After that, the target is to educate the coaches in the clubs.
AIFF’s President Kalyan Choubey has gone out of his way to provide full cooperation to upgrade coaching quality within India with may be even come up with 40 academies in the future so that no talent can escape without being detected.
The AIFF is geared to change the track for proper football development with emphasis on grassroots and youth development. To start with the AIFF will take on the task of retraining the already qualified coaches and qualify for the U-17 World Cup on its own merit. The U-17 World Cup will be held every year. The only time India participated in the U-17 World Cup was in 2017, when it hosted the tournament. To start with, Wenger will prepare the format for talent scouting and will ensure that the new guidelines are strictly complied with, with additional coaches as talent scouters.
Valanka informed that she had discussed the possibilities of setting up the girls’ academy and that it could even be hosted in Goa provided the Goa government would provides the necessary back up, like what the Odisha government had done in the case of boys.
“I will talk to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and AIFF would back it up as we need also to unearth young women’s talent, more so since women have a better chance to qualify for the Women’s World Cup. My objective is to see that the partnership will blossom into one of the most successful in Indian football history and nothing like being Goa-centric.”
