Sunil Chhetri: India needs to play on FIFA Match Days!

Sunil Chhetri, Indian national team captain and the AIFF Player of the Year 2011, spoke in Mumbai today on the sidelines of an event about a topic which is important when it comes to Team India and its FIFA world rankings - the use of FIFA match dates.

Sunil told the media, "The rankings work in such a way that if you don't play matches you slide down. There are 12-13 days set aside as FIFA days and the I-League should be structured in such a way that we are able to play on all these days. We can rise up to 110 if this happens."

A very valid point from Sunil, then in the past India did not use any of the FIFA match dates, but over the last couple of years some of these match dates are being used for international friendlies.

Only if all these 12/13 dates across a calendar year were used, especially against higher ranked teams and India could get draws or wins then we could improve our rankings which would then also help in being seeded in FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup qualifiers.

But this would mean coordination with the I-League calendar and other football tournaments and championships in the Indian football calendar.

Something the new national coach needs to look into and it is good to see that Sunil is speaking his mind about important issues just like Baichung Bhutia used to do, even if it is not liked by the authorities.