AIFF president lauds overseas scouting programme

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Bengaluru, September 30: The All India Football Federation president Praful Patel has called the overseas scouting programme, which helped in unearthing talent from foreign shores, “a resounding success”.

The programme was launched keeping the U-17 World Cup in mind but Patel said that “we will be happy to continue with the programme”.

In what is a first of its kind, the Indian football team is all set to have a National Centre for Excellence – a facility that is expected to host and look after all the different age groups, the senior men’s and women’s team.

The facility which will be the home of all the national football teams, is expected to have state of the art facilities that include scope for bettering physical and mental conditioning of the players.

On September 21, head coach Luis Norton de Matos announced his 21-man squad for the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017, including two NRI players — defender Namit Deshpande and goalkeeper Sunny Dhaliwal.

“We are happy to continue overseas scouting programme. If there is any available talent complying with all the government regulations then we will be more than happy to encourage them as they are also as Indian as we all are,” said Patel.

Asked about the future of the programme apart from the U-17 team he said, “We will in due course continue this programme in other age groups too. But we have to honour the laws of the land.”

“People assume that any Person of Indian Origin (PIO) can play for India, but it is not the case. You need to be an Indian passport holder to be eligible. You also cannot be a dual citizen or passport holder. The laws are quite clear about citizenship and who can represent India.”

The programme in partnership with the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the Overseas Scouting Portal (OSP) was launched to ensure Non-Resident Indians (NRI) also had a chance to play for the India U-17 team.