Praful Patel confirms that the appointment of National football team coach is in progress
Praful Patel, the president of All India Football Federation president may consider appointing an experienced and proven person as the national team coach.
Process of appointment
All India Football Federation has received more than 250 applications for the top job, post of which is vacant after the resignation of Stephen Constantine by the end of the AFC Asian Cup tournament. India could not even enter the knockouts stage of the tournament and that led to the resignation of the former coach.
Sources reveals that 35 of them among the 250-odd applicants are well-known names from Europe and elsewhere.
The list of applicants for the Indian coaching job also includes candidates from the Indian Super League and I-League.
A short-list will be prepared this week and the candidates would then be interviewed by the technical committee, and based on its recommendations, the executive committee would make the appointment from among the final list.
The deadline for applying for the top job ended on March 29.
The big names in list are-
Italian Giovanni De Biasi, Hakan Ericson of Sweden, France’s Raymond Domnech and England’s Sam Allardyce.
Bengaluru FC’s highly successful former coach Albert Roca has also emerged as the frontrunner for the job, with many national team players favouring his appointment.
Under Roca, Bengaluru FC played four finals in his two seasons in charge – making the final of the AFC Cup in 2016, the Federation Cup in 2017 and the ISL and Super Cup in 2018.
“If the candidate fulfills the criteria, what we are looking at, and if he is well-qualified, then we can think of that (appointing a big name),” the AIFF chief told.
“The appointment will be made as soon as possible, maybe by the end of this month,” he added.
FIFA has selected Praful Patel as a Council member on this Saturday.He is the first Indian to enter the prestigious panel in a landmark development.
He has won with a record-breaking margin, securing 38 out of the 46 votes at the 29th Asian Football Confederation congress in Kuala Lumpur.
