INDIAN Football

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Hope you guys don't mind me creating a New thread. let me know if you don't approve i will delete it

SAFF has announced new competions for our region

http://demo.bdwebtech.com/bff/index....ive&Itemid=138

"The new competitions SAFF plans to host are a club competition at centralised venue, two youth meets and competitions for national and under-17 women’s teams."

“We plan to launch the SAFF club championship next year and the other tournaments will be held according to the plans. We want respect from the football world. We want to see ourselves in that category in the next two years,” Kazi Salahuddin

Club champions league sounds interesting
current state of Indian football league . Needs huge improvements .. no offical sponsers and no telecast for I league this season

New club Pune fc
Vs Chirag united (kolkota based team)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9cXS...&feature=feedu

Vs mohan bagan (Kolkata based team)
http://www.youtube.com/user/PFCTVonl.../7/OAO-nY5DnYo

East bengal doing really well this season. undefeated so far in 5 matches
East Bengal vs Salgaocar Sports Club
http://www.youtube.com/user/wwwebrpi.../1/_4xWrKWUiyo

East Bengal vs AIFF under 20 team ( same team that Bangladesh u-23 beat at south asian games 1-0)
http://www.youtube.com/user/wwwebrpin#p/u/5/gUenKEmKZ5g

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For the under 16 SAFF competition India will most likely send these kids training in Florida

IMG Reliance Scholarship Recipients Training at the IMG Soccer Academy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFKjx9Lgsb4

IMG Reliance To Send Sixteen India U-14 Boys To IMG Academy In The US (Under 14 team will train in US 4 years now)

http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/27...a-u-14-boys-to

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Finally some hope for Indian football.

IMG, Reliance in $140 mn soccer deal

"Billionaire private equity investor Ted Forstmann's sports and entertainment company IMG Worldwide and Reliance Industries have teamed up again to commercially develop another popular global sport in India.

IMG and Reliance have signed a 15-year deal with Indian soccer's governing body for the commercial rights to the sport, including the potential relaunch of the pro league there."

"The deal gives the joint venture the right to "radically restructure, overhaul, improve, popularize and promote" soccer on an amateur and professional level.

Andrew Wildblood, an IMG executive vice president and an executive director with the joint venture, said the partners will work toward an overhaul of the existing pro league or relaunching a new one in 2012.

Under the deal, IMG and Reliance will control the Indian national soccer team -- ranked 142nd out of 203 by FIFA -- and all current and future professional leagues, including media, sponsorship, advertising, licensing, merchandising and franchise rights, the companies and the All India Football Federation said."

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http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/13...sman-azad-urdu

30 school teams turned up on the chilly morning of 18th December. After 2 days of non-stop football action, the final was fought between Usman Azad Urdu High School and Suffah English High School.

The two kids selected for the training camp under the Arsenal coaches are :

• Shoaib Khan from Usman Azad Urdu High School
• Owaiz Ahmed Khan from Suffah English High School

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football grounds are in really bad shape in India

http://www.zeenews.com/news658885.html
Fifa has proposed to set up eight artificial turf fields in India.

"Contracts for setting up four artificial turf fields in Shillong, Imphal, Bangalore and Mumbai have already been signed, while four other venues will sign the contract by the end of the year.

Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Kerala were initially shortlisted to receive the turfs, but since there was no positive response, the AIFF decided to allot additional turfs to Goa, Maharashtra and Bengal."

[Habib]

Good initiatives. Hopefully India will be able to compete with BD in 20 years. BD should help India by allowing them to play in BD domestic league.

[Nocturnal]

Eastbengal or Mohon Bagan??

I used to follow Eastbengal only because my fav player Monem Munna played for them in early 90's!

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http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/17/stor...1756811600.htm

Panasonic to sponsor national football team

"The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has signed a three-year deal with Panasonic to sponsor the National senior team.

According to AIFF president Praful Patel, the sponsor will pay Rs. 4.75 crore annually and the team will wear the Panasonic logo on the jersey. It was also made known that the sponsorship deal covers only the national team."

4.75 crore each year for 3 years .. but india will have to play 6 international friendlies every year. AIFF better not screw this up

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Chopra keen on India future

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...ty/9200132.stm

Michael Chopra Chooses India Over Bleak England Prospects

http://www.championshiptalk.com/mich...and-hopes/1028

"In an inter­view with the BBC Michael Chopra has revealed that he is actively pur­su­ing becom­ing an Indian inter­na­tional in the near future.

With his grand­par­ents on his father’s side born in India, Chopra is eli­gi­ble for the Indian national side, but could be delayed in mak­ing his debut due to the tech­ni­cal issues around secur­ing the cor­rect paperwork.

"This is a move into an entirely dif­fer­ent inter­na­tional direc­tion for the for­mer Eng­land under 21 inter­na­tional who has played for Eng­land youth at every youth level from the under 15 side onwards."

If he does make his Indian debut he will become the super­star of Indian foot­ball and is likely to improve the side’s for­tunes sig­nif­i­cantly. He will have the dis­tinc­tion of being only the sec­ond Indian inter­na­tional to have played pro­fes­sional foot­ball in Eng­land, the other player being Indian cap­tain Bhaichung Bhutia who had a spell at Bury Town.

An inter­est­ing deci­sion but it seems that India have pulled off quite a coup."

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Indian national team needs better strikers up front.. current crop of players in National team are useless except for Bhaichung and chettri (both are injured)Too bad he can't play for us in Asia cup but hoping he will be there after Asia cup for world cup qualifiers coming up in 2011

No Michael Chopra for India in Asian Cup
http://www.sportskeeda.com/2010/12/1...-in-asian-cup/

"English Championship club Cardiff City FC striker Michael Chopra will not be playing for India in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup next month in Qatar. Sadly the AIFF top brass didn’t make any pro-active attempt to fast track British citizen Chopra getting an Indian passport to be eligible under Indian law to represent the country."

"Team India captain Baichung Bhutia when recently asked about Michael Chopra had said, “there aren’t too many players at that level eligible for India.” And Baichung’s team mates thought similar that a player of Chopra’s quality would surely help the national team in a tough competition like the AFC Asian Cup. And through the Football Players Association of India they tried to get something going, but it did not happen.}

"I fear this is a lost chance for India to integrate a top talent into our national team set-up. Surely Chopra is no Messi but for Indian football he could surely be an asset in the years to come. Now lets hope after the Asian Cup is played the AIFF realise their mistake, they then take a more pro-active and welcoming approach to integrate Chopra. Then Team India will have to regroup after the Asian Cup with numerous senior international players set to retire and Chopra has stated that he is willing to play for India even if not getting a passport quick enough to play in the Asian Cup."

chopra highlight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKeHPj4PZLM

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Australia, south korea are going to put up Cricket scores against india in Asia cup
but will look forward to SAFF cup 2011

SAFF Club Championship in September 2011

"Dhaka, Oct 21: The first ever SAFF Club Championship will be held in September 2011"

"It has been also decided that, the seventh SAFF Championship will take place in India in December 2011. The venue is yet to be decided but the top competition of the region will be played between December1-15."

some other interesting news in that same article

"The SAFF delegates also decided to appeal to AFC for allowing three teams from South and Central Asia regions in the Asian Cup. Now only the AFC Challenge Cup champions can participate in the tournament."