Dubai: While expectations from the Indian football team in international assignments are not often sky high, the same cannot be said of the man who occupies the hot seat of general secretary of the All India Football Federation (AIFF). Little wonder then that Kushal Das, the present incumbent who has held key corporate portfolios in the past, admits that he has his hands full.
He was in Dubai to watch his national team take on the UAE in the first of their World Cup qualifiers in Al Ain yesterday. Das of course is no stranger to Dubai, having had a tenure with the International Cricket Council (ICC) as their Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for two years.
Ever since taking up this new assignment last October, Das has done his bit towards brand building for the federation — building up a public relations machinery as well as entering a strategic alliance with IMG Reliance Group.
Speaking to Gulf News exclusively, he held court on various subjects — ranging from Baichung Bhutia to the need for hardselling the game in the country. Following are the excerpts:
Gulf News: What are your expectations from the World Cup qualifier against the UAE?
Kushal Das: There are expectations, but at the same time we are not unrealistic about our chances. The UAE team is a good side… what I am looking at is a good performance. I am not looking at short-term results but long-term goals.
Ever since the Asian Cup campaign in Doha at the beginning of the year, we realised that the long ball game we were trying to adhere to did not suit our style. We approached Armando Colaco — who took up the challenge on a short-term basis — and I must admit that progress has been made about the style of play. The victory against Qatar was a remarkable one. Hence, I will be quite satisfied if I see a change in style.
The controversy in the aftermath of the Asian Cup saw Bob Houghton being removed as coach much ahead of his term and even Baichung Bhutia being criticised for playing with an injury. In hindsight, do you think the AIFF mishandled the issue?
Since we were playing the Asian Cup after 27 years, we did not want to generate any negativity — neither did we publicly criticise the coach for fielding players who were not fully fit. The technical committee met later and we expressed our reservations to the coach.
The federation has named both the veterans, Bhutia and Rennedy Singh, in the squad to tour England for the Pakistan matches. Is it some kind of payback time for them in view of their contribution to Indian football?
Well, not really. We have to acknowledge the contributions of both Bhutia and Singh in Indian football. The squad which we were supposed to have sent was essentially an under-23 team, but these two can play the role of mentors.
This apart, Bhutia has an iconic presence not only in Indian football but in south Asia. Both his and Singh's presence will help build up the hype during the team's England tour.
Post-Asia Cup, do you think there could be a sense of hurt in Bhutia — that of such negative publicity despite contributing so much for Indian football?
Actually, we have never publicly criticised Bhutia for his form in Doha. The reason why Colaco did not consider him in the build-up to these qualifiers is purely on fitness grounds, and he himself has acknowledged it. Once he proves his fitness and wants to carry on at the international level, we may still consider him.
Over the last few years, there is money coming into Indian football.
Well, we haven't yet signed a new broadcast deal for the I-League, but we have signed up a significant partnership with IMG Reliance. It's not only a marketing deal but a strategic alliance under which they are helping us in the restructuring of our calendar, infrastructure as well as development programmes.
It's a very good partnership. When Zee terminated their partnership last year, IMG came into the fray and we hope to build on the relationship.
However, instances of Mahindras & JCT — two of the biggest corporate houses — pulling out teams must be a bad advertisement for Indian football…
I wasn't around when Mahindras disbanded the team but from what I had gathered, they decided to shift their focus to something else. JCT's reasons were of course largely financial and it didn't help that they got relegated. We are not unduly worried at the pullout of these teams, though it's rather unfortunate.
There is enough interest from new corporate houses, for example, the Jindal Group, who are interested in forming a club. What they, of course, want to see enough evidence of is that we have a plan in place and that's what we are working on. The Indian youth today watch a lot of football — though international and the EPL [English Premier League] — and hence there is a market for the game.
The AIFF has been talking about an academy and centres of excellence. Can you elaborate on them a bit?
Yes, the idea is to build up the centres of excellence in different pockets of the country where the game is popular. Two centres in Bangalore [Bengaluru] and Sikkim are ready where grounds have been taken on lease with buildings to lodge the trainees. Another one is coming up in Goa.
Then we will have an elite academy to which these centres will act as feeders.
We have been working with Fifa and some international groups (ie Orange Sports Forum of The Netherlands and JMG Group of France) on these development programmes.
