New Delhi: I-League club owners might go by a collective ideology of playing as many as foreign players in their side to increase their team's quality but the technical director of All Indian Football Federation (AIFF), Rob Baan begs to differ as it hinders the growth of the national side.
Baan feels that as most of the clubs play foreign recruit in the striking position it has a negative effect on Indian players who want to develop as a striker.
“In I-League it is the foreigners who decide the matches. All the clubs have foreign forwards and in such situations Indian players have little chance to play. Like during the AFC Challenge Cup, when Jeje (Lalpekhlua) could not play due to injury there was no striker good enough to take his place,” said Baan on the sidelines of a coaches’ workshop at the Ambedkar Stadium here.
Baan holds an opinion that a new regulation should be formulated which would limit the number of foreigners in a side. “I think that there should be a regulation in place for the clubs to reduce the number of foreigners. I would give the AIFF a master-plan for the upliftment of the game in the country and I-League would a total different chapter of the plan,” added Baan.
Baan knows that it would not be possible to keep the foreigners off I-League as it would affect the quality of the league, but he feels that clubs should try and choose quality Indian players which would be possible through the four FIFA academies that would be set up in Mumbai, Bangalore, New Delhi and Kolkata with the first one starting its operation in Mumbai from next month.
By Samikshan Dutta Choudhury
Indian Sports News
