By Joseph Solomon,
AIFF Media Team

NEW DELHI: After the positive response of the overseas trials in Dubai, there are plans to take it further to more Countries – all with an aim of scouting Indian Passport holders and strengthening the Indian squad for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup. In an interview with www.the-aiff.com, Abhishek Yadav, Director, Scouting, AIFF informs of the future plans, the next stop, the benefits and much more. EXCERPTS:

What next for the Overseas Scouting Project?

We are creating an online portal wherein Players can upload their videos for us to have a look at them. That gives us an opportunity to extend the horizons of scouting and extend the outreach of the Project. The Portal will be online soon and it will bolster our scouting efforts.

Which Country will be the next stop?

We want to take the Project next to Qatar. We will go ahead with the next round of scouting soon in an attempt to take the Project to every Indian residing abroad – but most importantly, to all of those solely holding an Indian Passport.

How beneficial is the Overseas Scouting Project?

The Project is a new concept and it helps in a lot of areas. Firstly, it reaches out to Indians present globally giving them a chance to play for the Indian U-17 National Team whilst creating awareness about India hosting the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2017.

Secondly, it helps us spread the goodwill across the Globe amongst Indians residing abroad that they are also part of our Scouting process and they too have a part to play in their country’s efforts for the FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Furthermore, we are scouting for the Indian U-17 National Team but that does not mean that we will ignore the other age groups. We will scout others as well and give them a fair chance for the Indian National Youth Teams.

How will such a scouting benefit the Indian U-17 National Team?

The idea of the Overseas Scouting Project is to increase the base of the Player pyramid structure and the best scenario for any Coach is when he has a difficult time to pick his squad from a group of 40 odd Players. We intend to create that and the whole aim is to feed more talented Players in the pipeline for the Indian U-17 National Team.