With Indians grouped alongside lower-ranked sides - Cambodia, Afghanistan and Hong Kong - in the upcoming AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, former India football captain Bhaichung Bhutia expects nothing less than a dominating performance by the national team.
India is set to host all their three clashes making home advantage another pivotal factor in the team’s favour, felt Bhutia.
“I think we have been very lucky with the group and are in a good position to make the best out of it. Plus we are playing in India. So I expect us to qualify but it's not going to be easy. There should be no excuse if we don't make it because unlike the past all the teams we are grouped with are ranked way below us,” said Bhutia.
In the city for an event to support and launch the ‘Sport for Life’ initiative by the Abhinav Bindra Foundation, Bhutia added that the timing of hosting the AFC qualifiers too couldn’t have been better.
“The momentum will get carried from ISL to national duty. Of course, injuries are always a concern, especially for the seniors or the ones playing the leagues’ final but overall, it's good that there isn’t much of a gap which is better than coming out of months without competing.”
Talking about the league, the former striker sounded rather disappointed. Goal-scoring had always been an issue with India in the recent past and despite the number of foreigners being brought down to four this season, the numbers are just not there. Liston Colaco stands the only Indian among the top 10 ISL scorers list.
“We should ideally have 2-3 Indian strikers in the league's top-5 goal scorers consistently. But we haven’t been able to achieve that in eight years of ISL which isn’t a good sign for Indian football. To change this we need to add more teams to the leagues and extend the season to 8-9 months a year.”
Another aspect to improve the quality of ISL according to Bhutia is to bring back the five foreign players rule.
"The rule helps maintain the quality of ISL which in turn increases viewership. Because, right now, there is no difference in the standards between ISL, I-league or second division. If we make I-league or second division teams compete against ISL, there are good chances of the former defeating the latter. If United Sikkim FC are given five good foreigner players and a little more money, I can assure you that they can challenge some of the best ISL teams," he offered.
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