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Journalism of Courage
India’s football head coach Khalid Jamil on Saturday took full responsibility of the team’s loss to Bangladesh and added that the Indian Super League must start at the earliest to arrest the Blue Tigers’ slide. India are currently 142nd in the FIFA rankings which is their worst in nearly a decade with their 0-1 loss to Bangladesh their first loss to the country in over 2 decades.
“We shouldn’t give any excuse but it would have been better if the ISL happened on time. I feel ISL jitna jaldi start hoga utna achha hai (the sooner it starts, the better it is), everyone (players) is working hard ki kuchh ho (something happens). We must think positive. Winning and losing are part and parcel of any game,” Khalid said on asked if the delay in the national league’s start had affected India’s performance.
“Last match result I don’t blame Shabbir (Ali) sir (technical committee vice chairperson), IM Vijayan (technical committee chairperson), Kalyan (Chaubey) sir (AIFF president) who supported me. I take the full responsibility,” he said.
A little over a week ago, India dropped six places down to 142nd. This was after embarrassing 0-1 defeat to Bangladesh in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers, reflecting the national side’s free fall in the last two years.
The Jamil-coached team lost to Bangladesh for the first time since 2003 in Dhaka on Tuesday, leaving the country’s football fans deeply anguished at the continuous downward slide in its fortunes. The team has already been knocked out of Asian Cup contention after losing to Singapore in Goa last month.
“Ranking is a reflection of our last five years’ performance, ranking doesn’t matter but we must win which didn’t happen in the last game. We must try very hard,” Jamil said.
Former India captain Shabbir Ali, who joined Khalid at the interaction, emphasised the need for long-term structure.
“Grassroots programme, youth development programme is on. It’s a must thing.” “I’m not praising Khalid nor I’m blaming foreign coaches of the past. In the last 10 years no coach selected any I-League players — may be one or two.
“We are trying to play more Indian players, at least in camp.”
(With agency inputs)
