Asian Cup 2019: 5 things Former India Coach Stephen Constantine could have done better

#3 Scheduling and playing friendlies

India rejected offers from Syria and Iran to play friendlies

Constantine has always wished that he would get the Indian national football team to play more international friendlies. He has often spoken about how he wished India played stronger opponents like Iran, China and Jordan on a regular basis.

Yet, ahead of an important tournament like the Asian Cup, India played only three friendlies - against China, Jordan and Oman. In these three FIFA international friendly windows, most of India's opponents at the Asian Cup played six friendlies.

This, after claiming before the departure to UAE for the Asian Cup, that Constantine had to reject an offer to play Iran because the fixture clashed with Oman.

The AIFF are responsible for writing to federations of other countries and inviting them for friendlies. But the coach still has a say and he can push the AIFF to approach more teams.

India are learnt to have rejected an offer from Syria to play a friendly on Dec 30, just before the Asian Cup. They instead chose to play an intra-squad match, which is anyway a drill in most training sessions.

Constantine also skipped friendlies in 2016 to help India climb up the flawed FIFA rankings. There is a rise in performance surely, but the rise in rankings from 173rd to a high of 95 is mainly because India toyed with their international break schedules.

Next slide - Constantine was poor in managing senior players