New Delhi: The technical director of All India Football Federation (AIFF) Isac Doru emphasised on building more competitive domestic tournaments to groom age group footballers. He also urged the Indian football governing body to play as many international friendlies as possible to offer youngsters international exposure to ensure Indian football a better future.
The technical director believes that the state units, along with their respective development officers, will be crucial in spreading the sport throughout India.
"The states covered by development officers gives us opportunity to cover a larger area and a larger number of people. This larger reach can only be capitalised upon if more competitions are held, giving the footballers across all levels more opportunities to play the game and improve themselves," said Doru.
"We need more competitions. We need more games to build a better future. I read a lot about training techniques, and this and that. But the harsh reality is that we need our footballers to play more games, to play more competitions. A larger reach will certainly help us attain that."
He stressed on the significance of "capacity building" of the state associations during a FIFA capacity-building workshop.
Doru stated that the state associations are the "building blocks" of Indian football.
"The state associations are the bricks that build up the future of Indian football. These bricks make up the foundation. It is our job, as the federation, to work together in harmony and help football grow," said Doru.
The 57-year-old went on to say that currently only 45 per cent of the Indian population play, or are involved in the sport in some way or the other. However, for further growth, he believes that the rest of the population also need to get involved.
"We still have 55 per cent of the population where there is no footballing activity. We need to think how we can expand, how we can make football more popular," he said.
