Experts stress on longevity, continuity for better results

MARGAO: Even though he has won the Copa America, Confederations Cup and scored nine goals in 50 games for Brazil, Elano Blumer would have achieved the least among the quartet sitting on the dais for the pre-final media conference here on Saturday. That’s because two of the others, Marco Materazzi and Lucio, have won the World Cup and were part of the Inter Milan team that won the Champions League in 2010. The fourth person was Zico.

This was Lucio’s first ISL but the rest were in Season 2 of their India experience. All three said this edition was an improvement on the first. “Last year, the cut-off for qualifying for the playoffs was 19. This time it was 22…That actually means we have achieved the target of developing football,” said Materazzi.

Elano attributed the upswing to franchises retaining key players. Zico said it was a combination of the remaining I-League clubs lifting their embargo and three of the semifinalists retaining coaches. “That helped in the planning, and planning is knowledge,” he said.

“We can’t see good results yet but the aim is to see the performance of the India national team improve,” said Zico. One way the ISL can contribute to that is by becoming a longer tournament, he said. “Eight months at least. For it to stay just an event, four months (including pre-seasons) is okay but it makes it very hard for coaches to plan for development.”

“But there’s no quick-fix, it will take a number of years,” said FC Pune City coach David Platt .

For perspective, consider this — China has in place what it calls ‘the overall plan of Chinese soccer for reform and development’ since February. In 2015, the number of high and primary schools that have adopted football as part of their physical education programme has risen from 5000 to 8000.

Yet, while listing these as achievements at its annual congress in Kunming on December 16, association president and former table tennis legend Cai Zhenhua also pointed out that China are on the verge of elimination from the 2018 World Cup qualifiers where they have been held twice by Hong Kong. In an interview to HT earlier, Materazzi had said India is at least 10 years behind China in football.

As a starting point, young children need to have the ball at their feet almost constantly, Platt had said. “That gives them sensitivity in the feet, the ability to do things…At the age of four, five, six they need to be kicking a ball against a wall with no real kind of technique, no real kind of understanding of what they are doing…That way they learn to control the ball by their muscles rather than being told ‘this is how you do it’.”