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The Indian national team flew to Portugal to set up a training camp for two months. The selected 28 players have flown to Portugal with the exception of Gouramangi Singh who is on a trial with A-League club Melbourne FC. The rest are all I-League players who will stay with the national team till the Asian Cup in January.
India will mark its return to the elite competition after a long haul of 26 years. They are set to face Australia, Bahrain and South Korea in the group stage. India’s star striker, Sunil Chhetri, who is currently playing in the MLS with Kansas City Wizards, will join the squad in November as disclosed by Bob Houghton in his press conference.
July
The players will be working on their fitness in the first month of the tour. "For one month from July 1-31, the team will be based at Vierra, a small town some 200 kms from Lisbon on the road to Porto. It is a peaceful place with good football facilities. A Portuguese league third division side is based there,” said Houghton in the press conference.
The Englishman further added, "In the first month we are not playing any friendly matches. The objective was to bring all the players to same level of fitness. The players had come after playing in different clubs, some with injuries and later recovered, so they need to come to the same level of fitness before playing competitive games."
August
In the month of August the team is scheduled to change base to Lisbon and play 10 practice matches with Portuguese division two sides. Houghton explained the plan of action for August, he said, "The players will train at the Sporting Clube academy for the month of August. The academy is famous for producing two World Footballers of the Year in Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Figo. We will play 10 friendlies there."
September
After the training programme ends in August, the team will then fly directly to Bangkok to play an international friendly with Thailand on September 4. Thereafter, both teams will play a rematch in India at the Ambedkar Stadium where the national team will be based. The team will play four more friendlies in September, the opponents for which will be announced by the AIFF.
October
The team will play two more international matches in October the dates being 8th and 12th which are pre-fixed FIFA dates for internationals. Houghton’s men will then fly off to the Middle-East for a two week camp before returning to Delhi in November.
November
In the month of November the team will play one international match at the Ambedkar Stadium before leaving for Middle-East again for a final training camp beginning from November 20 leading up to the Asian Cup.
India U-19 team
The experienced manager also spoke at length about the need to field an AIFF U-19 eleven in the I-league. He cited the reasons as lack of opportunities for these bright young talents in the I-league.
He gave the example of Gouramangi Singh, he said, “These under-19 boys they don't get to play in the first team in the I-League. Gouramangi Singh was the best example. He was the Indian Under-17 captain. He went into oblivion before he was brought into the national team during the 2007 Nehru Cup and he became the best defender in the country. We want the Under-19 boys to play in the I-League regularly."
The 62-year old who isn’t afraid to call a spade a spade, yet again hit out at the I-League club officials missing a common goal towards the development of football in India. He said despite India having been in the game for 120 years the national team is ranked 133 all owing to in-fighting and a lack of true interest for the growth of a strong national league.