The dream is to win medals in prestigious competitions like the Asian Games, and Asian Cup or earn qualification for the World Cup finals. 

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Kalyan Chaubey, in an exclusive conversation with The Parallel Sports on Saturday, opined, “You have to pour water at the base of the plants. Otherwise, it will not grow. Similarly, you need to focus on the root, promote and encourage the youth and grass-route development.” 

Talking about the promotion and encouragement of the youth and grass route in Indian football, it cannot be said that AIFF has not contributed. 

Under the leadership of Kalyan Chaubey, an intense five-month preparation of the under-17 national probables was initiated from January to May last year. The boys were camped in Goa, travelled to four countries, and played 18 international preparatory matches. 

The boys participated in some 'quality' matches also playing against UAE, Qatar, Uzbekistan, Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, and youth teams of Germany. Even they obtained 'quality' training at Atletico Madrid. 

The under-17 national team will also be sent abroad this year for extensive preparation.

Simultaneously, looking at the grass-route level, a FIFA-ELITE Academy has been set up in Bhubaneswar with the purpose of building up a competent side that would be able to earn qualification for the under-17 World Cup in 2026. 

The AIFF president revealed, "These under-17 boys are the future of Indian football. They should be growing playing with Europe and Asia's top under-17 teams and growing with stronger teams they will earn the competitiveness also in the Asian level or even the international level when they will be in the senior age group."

Chaubey added, "Our group was probably the most successful bunch of Indian footballers from Tata Football Academy (TFA). The reason was that we were the only group who had been groomed in the academy for almost six years. Several footballers from the group represented the country in different age group international competitions. In a similar way, we also have plans to groom the potential under-13 boys at FIFA-ELITE Academy for a period of around five to six years.” 

Considering the promotion and encouragement for the senior national team, in the last 18 months the Federation under Chaubey's leadership took some noticeable initiatives for a solid preparation and exposure of the senior national team. 

The Indian team had the opportunity to take part in 25 international matches only within a span of 15 months as a part of the preparation for the World Cup qualifiers including major competitions like the Asian Games after a gap of eight years, King’s Cup, Merdeka Cup, AFC Asian Cup, South Asian Football Federation Championship, Tri-Nation Cup and Intercontinental Cup. 

Going by the statistics, it can be noticed that during the previous AIFF administrators who governed the sport for 12 continuous years, India played only 21 international matches in the 54 Months. 10 matches of which were before Covid-19 and 11 matches were played after Covid-19.

Out of these 21 matches, only three FIFA International Friendly dates could be utilized in 2018, and four matches in the SAFF Championship the same year. No additional friendly dates were used in any of 2019, 2021 or 2022.

Chaubey remembered, “During my playing career we had to play several preparatory matches against the local teams of Bangalore as the preparatory camp was based at the city's SAI center. We even had to play preparatory matches against NIS coaches! 

However, commenting on the senior national team the AIFF president said “You cannot expect any drastic change in the game of the country's senior footballers within 18 months. How you can change and bring out the best in footballers like Sunil Chhetri, Sandesh Jinghan, and Gurpreet Singh within 18 months?”

" They are trying their best. But you must have look at the potential youth and grass-route level to build up the stars of future," he concluded.