New Delhi: I-League club owners may share a common belief in fielding as many foreign players as possible to raise the quality of their teams, but Rob Baan, technical director of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), begs to differ, as he feels it hinders the growth of the national side.
Baan feels that because most clubs play foreign recruits in attack, it has a negative effect on Indian players who want to develop as strikers.
“In the 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. During the AFC Challenge Cup, for example, when Jeje (Lalpekhlua) could not play because of 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 believes a new regulation should be framed to limit the number of foreigners in a side. “I think 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 uplift of the game in the country, and the I-League would be a totally different chapter of the plan,” added Baan.
Baan knows it would not be possible to keep foreigners out of the I-League, as that would affect the quality of the league, but he feels clubs should try to choose quality Indian players. That would become possible through the four FIFA academies to be set up in Mumbai, Bangalore, New Delhi and Kolkata, the first of which will start operating in Mumbai next month.
By Samikshan Dutta Choudhury
Indian Sports News
