Arsene Wenger confirms visit to India in October; discusses Indian football with AIFF officials

Legendary French coach Arsene Wenger has confirmed his visit to India in October to finalise the settingup of a central academy in the country which is the beginning of what is expected to be a significant association between FIFA the sports world governing body and the AllIndia Football Federation AIFFWengers visit to India was finalised when AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey and Secretary General Dr Shaji Prabhakaran met with Arsegravene Wenger the FIFA Chief of Global Football Development in Australia last monthWenger who is expected to visit India in October opened up on the inspiration for working with the AIFF on such a talent development projectI would say that football is the most popular sport in the world and it looks logical that one of the biggest countries in the world has access to football development Irsquod say that India is a sporting country and Irsquom hopeful that we can bring great joy to children in India and have fun by playing footballIrsquom confident because I believe that success is linked to education We want to allow educating young people to watch football in India he was quoted as saying in a report by aiffcomAlso ReadWomens World Cup Germans knocked outAccording to Wenger theres a simple twostep process for developing academies in India Overall its based on two things First its identifying talent And then the quality of the educational programme and the coaching is vital The AIFF has to take charge of the education with us and we need good cooperationWe will need to work together with the AIFF to identify the talent first And after that we have to group the best with the best Under that you have the grassroots game for the whole country The starting point is to identify the talent and put the best with the best together he addedFor a country with 14 billion people the vast talent pool is the biggest advantage in terms of identifying talent But looking at the other side of the coin it also presents an organisational challengeThe number is an advantage but the organisationrsquos task gets tougher 14 billion people Irsquod say itrsquos a gold mine but a gold mine which at the moment we have not analysed or identified wellThatrsquos why we need people inside the country who know where the talent is This is why the cooperation between FIFA and the AIFF will be absolutely vital with a strong desire As per our conversation the AIFF is highly focused and motivated to help us do that I think we will do a great job together said WengerI met the President and the SecretaryGeneral in Australia at the Womenrsquos World Cup and I must say I was impressed by their motivation and their capacity to organise what we want to do I came out of the meeting very optimistic about our cooperation We will start the work really soon added the FrenchmanBut how soon will that be Irsquom happy to go and see how the work is taking place and Irsquove planned to go to India at the end of October or somewhere around that he sharedThough cricket is the most popular sport in India Wenger truly believes that for the country to become a sporting nation there has to be room for other sports to grow as wellI donrsquot see why India would not be on the world map with the number of players Itrsquos a sporting country At the moment cricket is their number one sport I have nothing against cricket I was in England for a long time and I know how important cricket is to England But there is room for other sports Not all the kids can only play cricket We want to give them that opportunity Football is a fantastic sport where there is no discrimination based on weight or size If you have good technique you play said the man who coached Arsenal FC to their famous English Premier League title in 200304 a season when the Gunners did not lose a single match in the entire campaignNot many know that Wenger coached in Asia before his monumental stint at Arsenal leading Japanese side Nagoya Grampus Eight between 1995 and 1996 The 73yearold believes India should adopt Japans method of making grassroots and education a priority should they want to climb the rankings and become one of Asias leading footballing powers againWhile his decorated coaching career might be over Wengers passion for the sport and decades of expertise fuels his dedication to keep developing the game in a different capacity now in the shape of such talent development projectsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever