Subrata Paul, the AIFF's director of national teams, defended the preparations for the AFC Women's Asian Cup on Thursday, describing them as “quite extensive” despite India's group-stage exit from the tournament in Australia.
The team was knocked out of the tournament after losing all three Group C matches, concluding the campaign with a 3-1 defeat to Chinese Taipei in Sydney on Tuesday. Despite the disappointing results, the team showed fighting spirit in their final match and in the opener against Vietnam.
“I believe the preparation was actually quite extensive. The Indian team spent around 48 days overseas for exposure. The team played six matches in Turkey and two in Australia. Prior to that, they spent six days in Dubai and played two matches, and earlier had a 13-day camp in Shillong where they played two matches as well,” Paul said.
“In addition, seven national team players represented East Bengal, where they played SAFF and AFC matches, and also featured in the Indian Women's League, playing six to seven matches. Altogether, the players prepared for around 67 days, playing 13 games internationally, and about 17 matches for their club side,” Paul, the former India goalkeeper who has also played in the men's Asian Cup, said.
In their first appearance in the tournament on merit, India entered with hopes of advancing, but the team instead finished bottom of their group following losses to Vietnam (1-2), Japan (0-11) and Chinese Taipei.
“In our initial plan, we had intended to complete the IWL before this tournament. However, at East Bengal's request the league schedule was adjusted so that the AFC Women's Champions League and SAFF Women's Championship commitments could be completed first. As a result, instead of all 14 matches, the girls played seven. Even so, the core players still got international matches, which was in the best interest of the national team. The AIFF remained flexible with the IWL schedule to support that objective,” Paul said.
Asked if it would have been better had more matches been arranged against national teams instead of games against club sides in the run-up to the tournament in Australia, the former India goalkeeper said, “One must understand that to play against other national teams, a FIFA window is required, and in each window a team can usually play only two matches. We have utilised the available windows to play against Uzbekistan, Iran and Nepal. We had also scheduled a match against North Macedonia, but unfortunately it could not take place due to last-minute visa issues,” he said.
Paul said that since this was the first time in history of Indian women's football that India were competing in the final round of the AFC Women's Asian Cup qualifiers, the AIFF made every effort to provide the national team with as many international matches as possible,” he added.
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