Mumbai: India football team manager Stephen Constantine has implored Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider amending the citizenship laws of the country, in order to allow Indian origin players to represent the national side.
“It's something that I have raised the question (about foreign players of Indian origin representing the country), and that’s a question for Mr Modi,” said Constantine, speaking to the media, on the eve of the Blue Tigers’ international friendly against Puerto Rico.
“The other day I heard an interview by Sam Allardyce, the new England manager, and he is talking about why are we not selecting more foreign-based English players.”
The Englishman even went on to cite the example of the German national team, where a number of players of Turkish descent are regular starters.
“You look at the German team. (There are) Two or three Turkish descent players,” he said.
According to the current laws, a person of Indian origin (PIO), who is a foreign national, must forego the citizenship of any other country, in order to represent India on the sporting field.
Puerto Rico a difficult team:
The Blue Tigers are set to play Puerto Rico, who are ranked 38 places above them, at the Andheri Sports Complex, in Mumbai, on Saturday. While India’s form has been good in the last few matches, the Carribbean side is set to be a rather difficult challenge for them.
Puerto Rico have delayed their arrival in India by a day and are set to reach Mumbai the evening before their match against the hosts. While this may result in their players not having enough time to get over their jetlag after a long flight, Constantine is still wary of a “good side”.
“They have a number of good players. They have a number of players playing outside of Puerto Rico. They are the highest movers (in rankings) in the last month, so whatever team they bring, (they) will be a team that would test us. I remember last time that a lot of people wrote off Guam,” said Constantine.
“They will be a good team. I’m sure they will be organised. They may be a little tired (from jetlag), but that’s not my problem. From a technical point of view, and from an organisational point of view, I expect them to be good.”
The 53-year-old went on to say that the Puerto Ricans could be especially dangerous in the attacking third of the pitch, due to the brand of football that they like to play.
“Their build-up is quite slow sometimes. I wouldn’t say typical South American, but they do like to keep the ball and pass it around. In and around the box and the final third, they become very dangerous,” said Constantine. “So they will be dangerous, tired or not tired.”
“You can achieve anything in India, in the last minute”:
It has been a long time since the Indian national football team have played a match in Mumbai. In fact, the last time an international game was played in the city was 61 years ago, in 1955, when the Blue Tigers faced off against the former USSR.
However, according to Constantine, it took a bit of a push to get the Andheri Sports Complex ready to host an international friendly.
“I shouldn’t say this, but in India, you can do whatever you want, whenever you want, in the last minute. And in the space of (the last) eight-nine days, the improvement has been unbelievable. Am I surprised? No. but I do wish that we do things a lot sooner," he said.
“Its long long overdue to have an international in Mumbai. I’ve said it many times before that I would like to have internationals in every city in this country. The people of India deserve to see the national team. So its great that we’re having an international in Mumbai. 61 years too soon,” he concluded.
