Gurpreet Singh Sandhu responds to Ancelotti's ‘India has no football culture’ remark: ‘Everyone should listen’

Dubai: When Carlo Ancelotti speaks about football, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu believes people should listen.

The Brazil coach recently made a strong observation about Indian football ahead of the historic clash between the two countries in Kolkata on October 3.

“I think it's a problem of culture. India does not have a culture of football, but they are good in other sports. You have to work on this to build a new generation of players,” Ancelotti said.

Speaking exclusively to Gulf News, Gurpreet was asked what he made of Ancelotti's comments.

The Indian captain believes advice from someone who has achieved almost everything in football should be taken seriously.

“When someone like Mr Ancelotti is giving you some guidance on football, I think everyone should listen,” Gurpreet told Gulf News.

“His feedback would be very crucial for us as a developing football nation.”

It starts with the basics

But Gurpreet also explained what he believes India needs to do to build the football culture Ancelotti was talking about.

For him, it starts with getting the basics right.

“If our basics are aligned with the countries that we want to compete with in the years to come, that's where things should start in my opinion,” he said.

“As you might know, in the past couple of years we have struggled in terms of getting the league structure and domestic football right.”

Gurpreet's comments come after a difficult period for Indian domestic football. The previous ISL season was delayed and played in a truncated format following uncertainty over its commercial structure, while the second tier campaign was also shortened.

Although the new ISL season is now scheduled to begin on October 10 and the Indian Football League on October 30, the disruption of recent seasons has highlighted exactly the kind of lack of consistency Gurpreet is talking about.

Meanwhile India have also dropped to 138th in the FIFA rankings.

Gurpreet believes that instability affects much more than just the players.

“These kinds of things hamper not only the players but everyone involved in the ecosystem, from the backroom staff to their families to everyone who is running academies and all through the chain.”

India needs a nine or ten month season

The 34 year old believes one of the first steps should be establishing a proper domestic football calendar that remains consistent year after year.

“The first thing is starting the league in the proper time span, a full fledged league that runs for nine or ten months like the global standard. Other cups involved as well,” Gurpreet said.

“Once that is set, it should be untouched and it's a cycle that runs year after year.”

For Gurpreet, that consistency could eventually help create the football culture Ancelotti believes India is missing.

“That's when we have consistency and once we have consistency with the structure, it will give organically a culture. That's my take on it.”

India now have an opportunity to test themselves against one of football's biggest nations when they face five time world champions Brazil at the Salt Lake Stadium on October 3. Brazil will be the highest ranked opposition India have faced since the FIFA World Ranking was introduced in 1992.

There were encouraging signs in India's previous game, with Khalid Jamil's side holding world No. 44 Panama to a 1-1 draw in Bengaluru. Ryan Williams gave India the lead before Omar Valencia equalised in the second half.

And Gurpreet ended his answer with a light hearted message for Ancelotti. Ancelotti. “Maybe Coach Ancelotti can give more tips after the match.”