File photo of Indian football team© AFP
The Indian football team went to the AFC Asian Cup 2024 with high hopes but the results were less than satisfactory to say the least. The Sunil Chhetri-led side was not able to able to score a single goal in their group stage matches and ended up conceding a combined six goals against Australia, Uzbekistan and Syria. In the past, Indian football has been described as a ‘sleeping giant’ but former Manchester City and Chelsea footballer Terry Phelan believes that it will not be an easy task to awaken the ‘giant’. In an exclusive interview with NDTV, Phelan, who is currently the sporting director of Bengaluru Super Division club South United FC, opened up about the state of Indian football and a possible roadmap for the future.
“We see everyone talking about playing in the World Cup. That takes time. It costs money, takes time and resources. It will take years and years to build. There is a push from private entities as well as the AIFF to improve coaches and if coaches are better, then the players will be better. I think it will happen with Indian football but they need to be aggressive with it and decide how can we take it to the next level.”
“It also needs to be a long-term project and include all major and grassroot clubs. It needs to be a big shift and maybe then we can awaken the sleeping giant but it is not easy to awaken a sleeping giant because if the national team is not winning games, people lose interest and that is not good,” he said.
Phelan has been a part of South United FC since 2019 and he also opened up about how the club are looking to invest at the grassroot level and identify more young talents.
“We have build a football club from scratch and we are self-sufficient. In Bengaluru, we have a wonderful set-up that helps the players. We also have a long-term vision where we want to add to the AIFF ecosystem. We are always looking to grow to Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and even Mumbai,” he added.
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