New coach scores a goal for India

Margao: India need expatriate talent, self-belief and patience to re-build their soccer team, according to new national coach Bob Houghton.

England's Houghton was appointed last month as the third coach within a year after poor results and soccer officials hope his vast coaching experience in Asia will benefit the team.

The 58-year-old former coach of China and Uzbekistan has a huge task as India are ranked 117th in the world and 22nd out of 45 Asian teams.

He said India should start playing friendlies on a regular basis to improve their ranking and allow them to avoid running into seeded teams early in international tournaments.

"To be ranked 117 is a major underachievement for a country with this sort of resources," Houghton said in an interview this week after taking charge of the national camp.

His first priority would be to tap into overseas talent. "There are some players of Indian origin playing in Europe, some quite good ones actually, and in England and Holland. It is possible that if, logistically, you get them and secondly if they are interested, if you can get three or four players, it will definitely strengthen the level."

Footballers such as Michael Chopra, who will play in the English second division for Cardiff City in the coming season, and some in the South African league are the targets.

Only Indian passport holders can represent the national team. However, rule changes allow persons of Indian origin to acquire a passport.

FIFA rules allow players with dual citizenship or nationality, who have not played international soccer above under-23 level, to apply to change the country they represent as long as they do it before they are 21.

India are keen to raise the game's profile in the cricket-mad nation, with Asian soccer authorities aiming to tap into one of the world's fastest growing economies and markets.

PAGE_BREAK

The 1951 Asian Games champions have strong roots in soccer, but have never qualified for the World Cup finals.

Poor administration is largely blamed for the failure to move the game into the professional era.

India still run a semi-professional league a decade after it was launched. Many previous foreign coaches have complained of an unresponsive administration.

Houghton warned against expecting quick results. "If you look at the Asian teams that have made giant strides forward, they didn't do it overnight," he said.

"Take Japan for example; in the 1990s they set about making plans to get into the World Cup. They worked very hard with the younger squads, invested in the development programme," he said.

Regular friendlies would be the key for India. "There is a lack of belief here at the moment," he said.

"They have had some poor results in the last year or so and that has got to change. "It is important to play games, particularly what I call sensible games," Houghton said.

"What we did in China, when I took over in 1998, we played a lot but against teams that were beatable by us," he said. "That changed the mentality of the players."