The Hindu : Constantine confident of good show in Asian Games

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 17, 2002

Sport

Sport - Football

Constantine confident of good show in Asian Games

By Our Sports Reporter

KOLKATA JUNE 16. The All India Football Federation presented the newly appointed English coach Stephen Constantine to head the country's dreams of making it big in the international football arena.

Speaking to the media here on Sunday ahead of the country's preparations for the Pusan Asian Games in September, Constantine reiterated the hopes of his employers saying that he will spare no efforts to help the team ``achieve its best'' in the continental meet.

The 39-year-old coach, possessing a host of high-level FIFA and FA coaching degrees, said that his new task poses ``the biggest challenge'' in life. There is the enough potential in the country and his efforts will be to get the best players together to take India to `the next level.' Though the coach did not commit himself to any target, he said the challenge would be to help the team do better than before. Having arrived at a time when there is no footballing action in the country, Constantine's idea about the Indian team is restricted to the SAF Games in 1999, when he coached the Nepal national team to win the silver losing against Bangladesh in the final.

The preparations for the Asian Games start on July 6 at Jamshedpur, where the Tata Football Academy will host the 34 probables and Constantine's colleagues including the technical director, Sukhvinder Singh, assistant coach, Alok Mukherjee and the project director Shanto Mitra.

This was decided following a meeting here between the AIFF secretary Mr. Alberto Colaco and the rest of the officials designated for Asian Games project.

The AIFF secretary said the camp in Jamshedpur will be followed by a trip to the Vietnam where a selection from the first camp will play an eight-nation tournament in Vietnam, scheduled to start in the first week of August.

The AIFF is also planning the to extend the exposure trip arranging a few friendlies against good Asian teams like Thailand on the way back.

Briefing about the probables, the secretary could name only five seniors — Bhaichung Bhutia, Joe Paul Anchery, Jules Alberto, Khalid Jamil and Virender

Singh. Mr. Colaco added that the rest of the 29 players — who are below 23 — would be named later following a scrutiny of their age as the Asian Games regulations allow only three players above the age of 23 in the team.

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