Date:28/10/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/10/28/stories/2007102861541700.htm

Sport

A coach’s anguish

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Bob Houghton was not particularly amused that India was playing its World Cup football qualifier in Chennai, the only city in India with a football stadium that has adhered to FIFA stipulations.

The chief coach said, “I have nothing against Chennai. It is a wonderful city but the fact is we have not trained here at any time nor played matches here. I mean, to think that this is the only place in the whole of India to have a stadium that can conduct a World Cup qualifier!

“I had worked in China where in Shanghai city alone, for instance, there are at least five to six stadia that can host World Cup matches,” he said, clearly reflecting his anguish over the paucity of top flight football stadia in India.

Houghton said, the world over, in international matches teams generally do well in the home legs because “they play in conditions that suit them and in an environment that is positive.

“Like what an Indian team experiences playing in Delhi in the Nehru Cup. That advantage can be lost.”

“Some day some one has to raise this matter,” he said, making it clear he was not being critical, but only expressing things that were key to the development of the sport in the country.