Former India Goalkeeper Subrata Paul Named National Football Team Director By AIFF
Subrata Paul, 38, played 67 matches for India.
Former India goalkeeper Subrata Paul was on Friday named the national team director by the technical committee of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), which also recommended Bibiano Fernandes as the men's U20 side head coach. The decisions were taken in a technical committee meeting chaired by former India captain IM Vijayan and attended by Shabbir Ali, Victor Amalraj, Climax Lawrence, Harjinder Singh and Santosh Singh. AIFF Secretary General Anilkumar Prabhakaran and treasurer Kipa Ajay, along with technical director Syed Sabir Pasha, were also present in the meeting here.
"The Technical Committee confirmed the appointment of former India international Subrata Paul as the Director, National Team," the AIFF said in a release.
"The Committee recommended the appointment of Bibiano Fernandes, Head coach of the U20 National Men's team." The Technical Committee discussed at length on the importance of football development at the grassroots, and recommended an annual inter-school tournament at the state and the national levels for boys and girls in the age group of 9-10 and 11-12.
To evaluate the performance of the national team in both the men's and women's categories, the technical committee also recommended the constitution of a four-member study group with Sajid Dar, Jeddy Almeida, Shakti Chauhan and Gumpe Rime as the members.
Vijayan said his committee and the technical department has proposed modifications in the development programme, which will help in producing quality players in the country.
"At present we have a large number of players playing at the grassroots and youth level. However, our performance with the national team has not reached the desired level," said Vijayan.
"At present, we need to have a quality players pool. The new development pathway and the modification of the new development programme will definitely produce quality players." Anilkumar said the technical committee recommended a pathway for the development of boys and girls at the youth level.
"Starting from the age of nine. The committee recommended introducing the inter-school grassroots level competition from the state level at the preliminary stage and the final round at the national level," he said.
"In this competition, the players will be scouted for the under 13 at youth academies which are participating in the national youth league present with the AIFF. Then, they will move to the next under 15 and under 17 category. After that, we plan to modify it based on the recommendation of the committee.
"Next year it will be the 14, 16 and 18 years age group, which will align with the qualifying matches of under 13 in the state level so that the qualified players can participate next year in the under 14 category of the National Youth League." For Under 15 players, Anilkumar said once they qualify this year, they can continue to play the National League in the under 16 category next year.
"This will help us to scout better players for the national team as well as for the AIFF and FIFA academy projects in various parts. At present we are running one project in Odisha. The second one is about to start in Telangana.
"Most likely, the other three will be launched within six months of time provided we receive the FIFA approvals in time. These players can join these academies and continue for the next three years so that India can produce better talent within a short span of three years of time so that we can perform better in the under-17 World Cup qualifiers."
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