New Delhi: The All India Football Federation plans to go ahead with the 2020-21 I-League season even if the clubs’ star foreign recruits are unable to make it due to the coronavirus-forced travel restrictions.
International flights remain suspended since March owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The league must go on even if without foreigners. But there are other people including the league committee chairman, Mr Subrata Dutta (who will also be need to be on same page),” AIFF general secretary Kushal Das said
He said that the senior national team will have an Indian as its chief coach in the next five years. “We are looking at an Indian coach for the senior national team in the next five years,” Das said. “There are many exciting coaches now, Bibiano Fernandes being one of them. There are people like Venky (Shanmugam Venkatesh) who are also maturing very fast.” A former India player, Venkatesh is currently assisting senior national team chief coach Igor Stimac, while Bibiano is the coach of the U-16 team. Under Bibiano, the team narrowly missed out on a semifinal berth in the last edition of the AFC U-16 Championship, losing to Korea. “We also plan to send a contingent of 10-12 coaches to the Netherlands and Germany to see how it works. This was supposed to start this year but will be done from next year,” Das said. (PTI)
