PANAJI
The Indian men's national team head coach Igor Stimac on Monday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur's intervention for Blue Tigers' participation in the upcoming Asian Games.
The team is ineligible for the tournament after not meeting the Sports Ministry's criteria of being a top-8 side in Asia and is set to miss out for a second consecutive time. The deadline for submitting the final entries for the September 23 to October 8 Games to be held in Hangzhou, China was on June 15.
Speaking of the hard work that the team has put in recent times, Stimac took to Twitter seeking the Prime Minister's intervention. "We as a national team have worked extremely hard in the last four years and managed some great results, proving that we can achieve more if we get the support from all stakeholders," Stimac said in a message on Twitter.
"I wanted to bring to your immediate attention that our U-17 team from 2017, which also gave a great performance at the U-23 World Cup qualifiers and is one very talented team, is now being deprived from participating in the Asian Games. This team really needs and deserves the participation," Stimac appealed, stating that the country invested heavily in the sport when it hosted the U17 FIFA World Cup in 2017.
The Croat labelled the reasoning provided by the Ministry in the context of participation as "unjust" adding that the Indian team is ranked higher when compared to some of the other countries that will participate in the Asian Games.
"My humble appeal and sincere request on behalf of the entire Indian football fraternity to you (PM), to kindly allow our football team to participate in the Asian Games. We will fight for our nation's pride and the flag!" Stimac concluded.
Earlier this month, All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Kalyan Chaubey said that the more India plays, the better exposure the team will get. "Football is not magic; you can only improve when you play quality opponents, make mistakes and then rectify. Competitive matches are needed," asserted Chaubey.
In May, India skipper Sunil Chhetri highlighted that playing frequently against tougher opponents will be hugely beneficial to the team. “The more games we get to play against better opponents, the better it will be for us. We just need to make sure that we manage it well against these opponents. It’s important to make sure that we improve as a team and individually as well,” said the 38-year-old striker.
