New Delhi, July 16 All India Football Federation (AIFF) is currently in talks with different state governments over the possibility of hosting national team camps across various age-groups, AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das has informed.
"The first important camp is for U-16 boys who are around three months away from the AFC U-16 Championship," stated to AIFF TV. "We are also conscious of the fact that the U-17 girls also need to start the camp as soon as possible," he said.
"We have been in talks with various state governments as well as SAI (Sports Authority of India). Each state government has its own set of protocols to follow in terms of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic situation. Hopefully, we start both camps very soon. That's our endeavour," said Das.
"Some states are following a very rigid protocol, so we might need to shift to a different state in that case. We are in the process of doing that. Abhishek (Yadav) and myself have been working constantly on this."
"It's extremely frustrating but it's not only for me as the general secretary of AIFF, but for everyone. It's very disturbing that all planning processes have been interrupted because of the virus.
"The world has mostly come to a standstill. But there's nothing we can do about this. We have to survive this. Human beings are very resilient. It has impacted and disturbed a lot of activities not just in sports but everywhere.
"With regards to the senior men's team, our plan is to start the camp sometimes in early September. We want the camp in Bhubaneswar as the match against Qatar was scheduled there. We're in touch with the state government of Odisha as well as SAI. We are expecting to get a response from them. It's a very tricky situation but we need to come up with the best possible solution given the circumstances," he added.
Under a normal situation, the junior teams would have been sent on a number of exposure tours to get them battle-ready for major tournaments like the AFC U-16 Championship or the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. While efforts still continue, exposure tours may not be a feasible solution keeping the safety of the players and the staff in mind.
"Yes it is a cause to worry. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, we had planned a lot of exposure trips which unfortunately are shelved now. I'm hoping that we can arrange some tours, especially for the U-16 team, at least one tour before going to Bahrain," Das maintained.
"But, at this point of time, it's very difficult to predict. It's definitely something to worry about. Even the other teams are also on the same boat. I guess it's the same situation for them. But I believe Uzbekistan, Australia and Korea Republic have already resumed training, so we also need to do that."
Incidentally, India U-16 have been clubbed in the same group with Korea Republic, Australia and Uzbekistan in the U-16 AFC finals.
The general secretary informed that India U-17 Women's World Cup coach Thomas Dennerby was very satisfied with what was planned in the build-up to the preparation for the World Cup.
"The preparation for the U17 WWC was going very well. Our coach Thomas Dennerby was quite satisfied. He felt that going for the exposure trips would certainly add more experience to the team. Unfortunately, we have to live with the circumstances. We'll see what we can do. There's no doubt that if we could have managed some exposure tours, it would have definitely helped," he quipped.
( With inputs from IANS )