Igor Stimac, the head coach of the Indian football team, said that there are not enough players with requisite technical ability to make the senior side competitive enough.

Speaking to the media on Friday following India’s recently concluded World Cup qualification campaign, Stimac said that the stakeholders of Indian football should look at this fact and devise a system that would help Indian footballers have enough games to grow in terms of technical ability.

“To be honest there are not many players with the technical ability. As a national team, we suffer all the weakness that is apparent in the country’s top league, the ISL. This happens when most of the important positions in the team are occupied by foreign players. This definitely limits the choice when we go to select the Indian players,” Stimac said.

India finished third in its group to qualify for the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers.

Stimac reiterated his stand that Indian players need to play more than 40 games a season to develop the skill-set that is needed to better the performances. “They need to play more than 40 matches in a season and it is only then that they can compete against the best in the continent. The clubs need to be playing football for a longer period otherwise the players will be sitting idle for half of the year,” he added.
 

Stimac would prefer to start the national camp in August and prepare the team for the Asian Cup qualifiers in February playing regular friendlies abroad. “We have to exploit the FIFA calendar and start the camp in August. We would like to play two friendlies in September and if the ISL starts late we can continue playing friendlies in October and November. Once the ISL starts, the players will be having enough competitive matches before the February qualifiers.”