AIFF to Appoint Kushal Das as new General Secretary NEW DELHI: It can now be stated as official. Management and finance expert Kushal Das is going to take over the mantle of the general secretary of the All India Football Federation from long serving incumbent Alberto Colaco. “I shall take over after Dussserah,” Das told SportzPower, which was the first to report in August that he had been chosen to replace Colaco. Kushal Das is a former chief financial officer of the International Cricket Council and CFO IMG and PriceWaterhouse Coopers, which gives him the kind of financial expertise and professional temper that would be needed crucially for Indian soccer to step up a notch. At the ICC Kushal Das had replaced Faisal Hasnain in 2008. The 48-year-old Das, who will be based here, has spent 12 years as the finance director with IMG India and Korea, handling sports entertainment and media. Prior to his role at IMG, Das has also worked with Bharat Shell, PwC and Vegepro Foods. Colaco, who first became the AIFF honorary secretary in December 2000, and was appointed the general secretary in 2004, was slated to step down after the Asia Cup in January 2011, but the moment has come sooner. Colaco took office in December 2000 as AIFF's first paid general secretary. It was he who first moved the office of AIFF to a permanent address in Delhi’s satellite township, Dwarka Colaco had also taken some important steps towards bringing in corporate finance into Indian football in the form of Coca-Cola taking hold of the sub-junior national event, the Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy as well as the getting on board Panasonic as sponsor of the national squad.
For the games Asian games to be held at Guangzhou (Canton) , China from 12th - 27th November, the Indian football team is paired with Kuwait, Qatar and Singapore. Diffiuclt group, but me thinks we have an outside chance to progress. There are 6 groups of 4 teams each, so do they take 4 best 3rd placed teams a la WC94? Does anyone know?
Hello, I want to know if someone records matches from Indian League or when can i find those matches ? thanks regards
LOL we ourselves are finding it difficult to get any matches on T.V and your expecting someone to record matches. Well first lets hope that AIFF finds someone to broadcast I-League and then think about recording and uploading.
I don't understand because i see on Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-League If i understand you , matches of I-League is not brodascating on TV ?
We ourselves don't know about the broadcasters and according to sources it seems that this years I-League may not be shown due to above issues. You might find highlights of some matches from previous I-League on Youtube.
It could just be 6 groups winners and best two runners up? I'm not sure, but probably the better option for a shorter and sweeter tournament.
I suggest you get in touch with the AIFF and ask them for records. They should be having it, but they may ask you to pay for the records and ask you why you require them etc. Thanks I hope there is a R16. The longer the tournament the better I couldn't find any info on this particular tournament online.
Bad result. But, let myself get a few points across. Yemen, although not widely known as a strong footballing nation, have actually been improving a hell of a lot recently. You could probably say that they are actually better than India, but to win 6:3 is just plain and simply absurd. India, on the other hand probably actually needed a result like this. Hopefully, they will now know what they can actually deliver at the Asian Cup, which is simply nothing. It does seem apparent that they need to work on there defence and just stick to it. Even thinking of winning or drawing a game must be out of there plans now. Keeping to low score defeats must be the game plan. Low score defeats should hopefully make them think that with a little bit more effort and improvement over the next 5 to 10 years would mean they could turn these defeats into wins. But it's a long patient process. Can they handle it?
^^^^ Great post Durryfire. Spot on. I went for the Dandiya festivities yesterday night/evening and missed the game. Looks like I did the right thing. Having read about this game (from here) and seen the highlights, I would say that the defense is very very static. India does well going forward and can test the top teams defenses. However, the defenders and the defense strategy in general seem to be very immobile and there isn't any improvisation on the spot that is very much needed. Some small change in the opponents game plan, and our defense doesn't know what to do. The game was at 2-2, when India were trying hard for the win and Yemen scored on the break. After that India did play well, hitting the post a few times and getting close on a few other occasions. Yemen then scored on the counter and India went for an all out win. The thing is that Yemen threated and scored almost every time they countered. Good luck to Yemen in the Gulf Cup. And good luck to us in the Asian Cup. We really need it. PS: At least the game was great fun for the Puneris who could see a 9 game thriller in their own stadium.
After watching yesterday's game I feel majority Indian players were just too fat to play football. Maybe they should cut down on alcohol/heavy meals and run 10-15 KM everyday. Yemen team barely made any substitutions but still outran Indian players(who looked like they have been playing 180 mins of football)
After shamelessly losing the match Indian players started abusing the referee and argued with Yemeni players.
^^^ I think it was only Steven Dias and Chettri. Chettri got a yellow for abusing the linesman. This type of behavior should be brought under the book. I have started to realize that Bob Houghton makes the same post game comments irrespective of the results. Its like the tape is stuck at a certain point. He always says " Boys played well" , " we were unlucky" , "Defense needs improvement" , " crowd cheered us on" etc. He has nothing new or smart to add. Whether the 3-1 win against Vietnam or 6-3 defeat to Yemen, his comments don't change. Btw: in 10 mins India play Australia in the CWG hockey finals.
What is more concerning is that AIFF are spending around 25-40 crores on this Goal 2011 project and if they go on to concede goals like this in Asia Cup then its a complete waste.
It's never a waste. There's always something that the team gets out of it. 40 crores is nothing when you look at the business potential of the sport in India. This general reaction from our fans (not just here, check out the comments on goal.com or sports-keeda) is so typically Indian. We need to start controlling these extreme emotions of ours. the Monsoon Warriors beat Vietnam and folks are over the moon (some fans on goal.com it was I think, were absolutely certain we could beat South Korea and Australia, never mind that we'd just lost to Hong Kong 4 days earlier), they lose to Yemen and we're down in the dumps again. A little bite of reality and emotional stability I think would serve us well. People had unrealistic expectations from the team to start with, and now they're being too harsh on them. No, we're not going to win a single game at the Asian Games, we probably won't draw a single game either, and we may even lose one or two quite badly, but that's not the end of the world. It doesn't mean we've lost all the time and money that we've invested. As drury noted above, it's just the start of a long process of getting to the next level. Stay the course and let's see where we are in 10 years. I do agree that it was shameful of Chettri and Dias to argue with the refs. Very petty when we've lost by this large a margin.
Are you sure about this.I would have agreed if it were cricket. AIFF had to beg 25 crores from BCCI of which they only received 12.5.They even had to halt expansion of league to 16 teams. It was worth spending on a youth League which could have helped around 300 youngsters. It not about winning or losing its about pathetic show they put-up.It really doesn't give any hope of improvement in recent years. Team has been training together for 3.5 months still the defenders lack understanding between them,none of them could pass the ball properly and fitness of players was absolute pathetic. Talking about Long term there is absolutely nothing being done by clubs or AIFF Infact the graph has been going down in recent years,Last time we met Yemen we only lost 2-1
This will be complete waste of money on old horses.Must have spent on Youth instead. Getting into Asia Cup 2011 through backdoor was pretty easy.Now real picture is out.There is nothing left, all we have wait and see how we lose by Tennis margin in Doha then obviously kill off potential fans,sponsors etc. P.S I was never in favor of this Goal 2011 project
@Pedro, I agree (by and large) with what you've said. However, fans here (or on any other site) would & should be disappointed by the loss against Yemen. The errors due to which they scored their goals were schoolboy errors. @ AshIndia, In sports you never get returns on your money quickly. Japanese needed nearly 10 years after their J-league program to shine on the Asian stage. And they had invested much more in terms of time and money than this Goal 2011 project. I also mostly agree with Durryfire's post on the last page. This tournament is a learning experience for India. I personally wouldn't be too upset if we scored 1 goal and lost respectably in all 3 games. Anything more would call for a celebration. Our real test starts after the Asian Cup 2011, when we have to face the top teams again in WCQ12 and qualifiers for the next Asian Cup. Whatever exposure we have, we should be able to leverage it to the maximum.
Obviously when you spend on old horses who are about to retire in months time there is no question of returns. It was crystal clear that India could never succeed in the group they have been drawn.There was absolute no question of halting the league and offering expensive 8 months contracts worth 40 crores only to lose 6-0,7-0,5-0. AIFF could have simply arranged few good friendlies and a camp in 1 month advance which would have saved around 25-30 crores. There is no chance of India upsetting any of the opponents.But when you lose in such manner then your potentially losing sponsors and fans.
India Olympic NT - Vietnam Olympic NT 1-3 http://www.the-aiff.com/pages/news/index.php?N_Id=1892 http://vietfootball.blogspot.com/