Mumbai: National football skipper Bhaichung Bhutia on Thursday called for overhauling the domestic structure of the sport and said that players should be given universal contracts. "We have not changed with time. Other countries have developed according to the change in football, which has become a very fast game. However the club system and infrastructure in India is way way behind," Bhutia said during a discussion on football at the India International Sports Summit here. People are working hard but they do not have enough knowledge about the game, he added. Citing an example Bhutia said, "We (players) had proposed a universal contract for footballers to the All India Football Federation five years ago but that is still to happen." On the contracts signed by the clubs he said, "club contracts are ridiculous and are against the players. That these are signed by the AIFF makes them scary," he said. Bhutia suggested that state teams could be a part of the national league as they stood a good chance of getting support from their respective governments and were capable of developing a good side. Both Bhutia and national football coach Bob Houghton, who also took part in the discussion, were of the view that the existing football tournaments in the country should be scrapped and there should be only one national league. "Domestic system needs an overhaul. Traditionalists want some of the tournaments like the Durand Cup, Santosh Trophy, President`s Cup to go on and on other hand they also want India to qualify for the World Cup. Both cannot go hand in hand," Houghton said. "People in Kolkata would rather want their club to win the Santosh Trophy than India win the World Cup. This has to go and we need only one major league," Houghton said. "We need to get rid of most of those tournaments. We need to have one national championship. In the I-League, the AIFF should insist on clubs following the AFC criteria, which is not being done," he observed. "We need to adopt the same domestic structure as other countries in the world do. Restructure our domestic calendar, bring in sponsors and build some good infrastructure with their help. India will do well as it has the talent. But you need infrastructure. When we had to train for a month, we had to train in Dubai(for lack of infrastructure here)," he added. Meanwhile, Bhutia said that the Federation had to pressurise the clubs to provide better facilities to the players. "Federation has to ensure that the club is run professionally and the League is run well. Most of the clubs do not have their own grounds for training. National team can be strong only when domestic team is strong," he said.
Praising new AIFF president Praful Patel for his dynamism, Houghton said, “The new AIFF President has got a theory that he`s here for three years and needs to see a lot of change in those three years.
“We have heard that the IPL teams are thinking to go beyond cricket and become a multi-sport club. Maybe he can go that way,” he added.
Houghton said Patel had suggested that the national team should play together for seven months as part of preparation for the Asian Cup.
Asked what would be the one thing that he would like to change if possible, Houghton said, “I would like to instigate authorities to bid for the 2022 World Cup as it would help us focus on our game, and on building infrastructure as seen in the USA.”
However, Bhutia felt that rather than bidding for the World Cup, authorities should spend money on ensuring proper domestic structure, infrastructure and youth development programmes.
PTI