Anil Patel: I'd like to coach in India!

British Indian Anil Patel is one of the highest qualified coaches, then he is one of very few Indian origin coaches in Europe with a UEFA 'A' licence. After having coached in the UK over the years he's now looking at chances in India.

I spoke with Anil Patel about his background, coaching qualifications and ambitions.

Which clubs did you play football for?

I was a player/coach for BAPS FC (Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Football Club) and before that I played in local English clubs as the only Indian player, then in those days Indians didn't play within English clubs, so I moved to BAPS FC who played in the Asian Football League.


How many years and courses did it take you to get you the UEFA 'A' Licence?

It has been a long road to get to where I am now as a UEFA 'A' Licence Coach. In the beginning I didn't take coaching too seriously as I was still interested in playing. An English Coach approached me after one of our games, he was impressed by the way our team played and asked me if I had any coaching qualifications, so he inspired me to get into football coaching and also to coach an English team, which I first did in 2005.

I did my coaching badges while working full time, so that's one reason why it has taken me this long to get my UEFA 'A' Licence. And I'm proud to be one of the very few Indians to hold a UEFA 'A' Licence in the United Kingdom (the UEFA 'A' Licence is a 2 year course) .


Which clubs have your worked for? And in what capacity?

From 2006 to 2008 I worked part time for Queens Park Rangers FC as a Community Football Coach/Kicks Project, which involved Planning and delivering training sessions.

From 2007 to 2010 I worked as an Assistant Manager with Kingsbury London Tigers FC, a semi-professional team playing in the South Midlands Spartan League Premier Division which is Step 7 in the English football structure.

From 2008 to 2010 I also worked for London Tigers Organisation as a Sports Development Officer which involved creating, planning and delivering coaching sessions; while also organising a variety of sports tournaments, supervising, monitoring and evaluating all sports programme; while also representing the London Tigers organisation in strategic meetings and workshops.


How well do you know Indian football?

I have been following Indian Football for over 15 years now. I gained a lot of my knowledge of Indian Football from your old site IndianFootball.Com. And I remember we had first met when India toured England in July 2000 at the game against Fulham FC.

There is a lot of passion for the beautiful game in India but the lack of infrastructure, development of youth football and most of all the lack of football coaches, has hindered the progression, however since the formation of the I-League, the appointment of former coach Bob Houghton the Indian national team has progressed with the support of FIFA and the AFC. But more needs to be done by the AIFF.

With the AFC directive that all I-League clubs should be run professionally making sure that I-League players don't play in the state leagues is a welcome step as this has given other players the chance to shine for their clubs.

For over five years India has seen the emergence of football academies run by private clubs bringing in foreign coaches to run International Soccer schools as well as setting a standard structure of football coaching. That is a very positive step.


Why do you want to coach in India? What could you offer as a coach to Indian football?

The main reason is to see India play in the FIFA World Cup and win the AFC Asian Cup and become a force in Asia. Japan were in the same stage as were we are now 10 years ago and look at them now.

I want to help in the development of youth football, then there is the lack of technical, tactical, mental, physical knowledge which should help the players become more focused about their game as is the way throughout the world.

Players are becoming professional in their field, the same applies to coaches who have to become professional by constantly learning and developing new ideas to help the players.