Interview with Piet Hubers - "Patience, infrastructure and good coaches key features of a successful grassroots programme"

ISL's Grassroots Technical Director Piet Hubers with the kids at the event

The Indian Super League got off to a great start last year with its inaugural season, and the league is now looking to build on their success by initiating and implementing a succesful and sustainable grassroots programme.

The ISL's Grassroots Technical Director, Piet Hubers, was recently in Delhi, taking a look at the grassroots activities of the Delhi Dynamos. He took some time out to speak to the media. Here are the excerpts from the conversation:

You've been to different cities in India for the ISL’s grassroots programmes, how different has Delhi been?

Well, Delhi has not been that different, very similar to the other cities in my opinion. I've seen very energetic kids, energetic coaches and organisers and that gives me a lot of energy. Football in India, in my opinion, has a great future.

There is a lot of potential, and it is now time for the next step, for the clubs, the ISL and the AIFF to come up with a sustainable grassroots programme, that gives the kids, wherever they are in the country, the opportunity to have regular training during the week, and play grassroots matches, under the training and guidance of a proper team of coaches. That is the most important thing for long term growth of football in India.

What do you make of the existing grassroots infrastructure in India?

I spoke to the clubs, the ISL and the AIFF, before I came here, to make a mental picture of the grassroots programme here in India, and based on that, I made a proposal on how we can make improvements in grassroots education.

There are three things important for a successful grassroots programme – 1) You need to be patient, and understand that you will not see results from one day to another. It needs time to grow, and you need to keep that vision in mind.

2) With that said, it is very important to have sustainable football infrastructure, so that the programme continues with ease. The third and most important point is that you need good coaches, because coaching is essential to helping the development of a player, and in the end, good coaches will make good players, good players will make good teams, good teams will make a good nation, and India can grow as a footballing nation in the near future.

What are the skills that you look at the current age groups coming in for these camps?

What we do, is not only look at the players when they have ball possession, it is also how they act in defending and transition, what do they do when they get the ball when moving from defence to attack, what they do with it when they lose the ball and move from attack to defence.

In football, most games are decided by how players react in transition, when they move from defence to attack or the vice-versa. So we look for those qualities even at this age, it is not only about what you do when you have the ball, but in order to be a good player, you need to know how to act in transition, as for the future, that is very important.

There is no professional league for girls in India, but there are girls at these trials. What are your hopes for female football in India?

There are very few professional leagues when it comes to football for women across the world. It has improved greatly, there is a lot of potential for football for girls and women, and the story is similar in India.

We have some girls at every festival here, and just like in Europe, girls have to work on improving a lot when it comes to playing football, because, boys have had the advantage of playing for about 100 years, while girls started much later. So, it is very important for girls to realise that they can play in girls teams or mixed teams, at these festivals in these age groups, and we haven’t ever had a problem.

The future is important, and we should look to realise specific girls and women leagues, at a higher age, so that the future of football in India is bright.

We’ve been told that girls might also get scholarships. What can they achieve through these scholarships?

Girls, like the boys in their age group, are in the race to get scholarships in June. We are making a shortlist based on these festivals, and will invite 200 players for a training camp in May, and these players could also be girls, out of which we will select the best 24 for a scholarship program.

How do you see these players developnig once you select them for the scholarship program?

Well, we will monitor their development during the training camp in May, where we check how they are doing during the two practice sessions in a day, in addition to theoretical classes. Based on their improvements, we will select them for the scholarship program.

Once the players qualify, how do you see their development happening over the years?

What we intend to do is that we will offer them daily training sessions, with good coaches, in combination with a good, tailormade education, because we have to combine football with school, like in other countries.

India is a pretty different when compared to European nations, so how do you see this program sustaining in the long run?

We aren’t looking at starting a residential academy, but in the end, when clubs are ready for them, then it is important that they work on these kind of academies, so that more children can participate in such programmes, which have top sports and talent development in combination with education.

How important is it for Indian football to have home-grown talent?

It is very important, just like in every country, to have home-grown talent. People from specific cities should recognise themselves in those players, like when a player from Delhi plays in the first team, it will attract much more interest towards the game itself than a foreign player.

In the beginning, you need the foreign players to generate that interest, but eventually, it is very important that even more Indian players enter the ISL teams.

Being a huge Cricket nation, what do you think India needs to do to become a football nation?

Well, I am specifically associated with the development of the grassroots program, and not the other functions, so my focus is this, to ensure that we have a sustainable grassroots program and infrastructure, so that in the future, football has a chance to become big.

Thank you, Piet, for taking out the time!

Thank you.