India’s tryst with the Merdeka invitational soccer event may resume subsequent September, mentioned Kalyan Chaubey, president All India Soccer Federation (AIFF).
“We met Soccer Affiliation of Malaysia’s (FAM) president (Dato Haji Hamidin bin Haji Mohd. Amin) on Friday night and I requested him to restart the Mederka event. He mentioned it’s doable that it’ll occur subsequent yr and whether it is, India will probably be invited,” mentioned Chaubey over the telephone from Hyderabad on Saturday.
Because the event is linked to a celebration of Malaysia’s Independence Day on August 31, it’s doubtless that the competitors will probably be held within the FIFA window in September, mentioned Chaubey. As per the 2023 FIFA calendar, .the worldwide window is from September 4-12.
If the event is slotted for the October window, India’s participation might be an issue due to the Indian Tremendous League.
Following discussions it was determined FAM would have a look at inviting groups resembling Hong Kong, Turkmenistan, Singapore, Thailand together with India and Malaysia for Merdeka, mentioned Chaubey.
India have been runners-up in 1959 and 1964 within the competitors which started in 1957. Barring 1972, India performed each version from 1964 to 1971 and have been third in 1970. In 1981 and 1986 too, India performed the semi-finals below the captaincy of Shabbir Ali and Sudip Chatterjee respectively. Marto Gracious (1967), Subhas Bhowmick (1971), Ali (1976) and Krishanu Dey (1986) have scored hattricks for India in Merdeka. The event has not been held since 2013.
Chaubey and AIFF secretary-general Shaji Prabhakaran additionally met Asian Soccer Confederation (AFC) president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa in Kuala Lumpur on Friday. The AIFF president mentioned he had requested AFC to ship 5 coaches instructors for a coaches’ coaching programme. AIFF will select 50 coaches every from north, south, east, west and central India, mentioned Chaubey. Every group will probably be below an AFC coach, he mentioned. The AFC president has referred the proposal to its technical director Andy Roxburgh, mentioned Chaubey.