Chhetri: First focus on Asia, then think World Cup

Sunil Chhetri, Indian national team captain and the AIFF Player of the Year 2011, spoke in Delhi today on the sidelines of an event about a topic which is important when it comes to Team India and the expectations from fans who always which we would play in the FIFA World Cup without knowing that we have to build a reputation in and across Asia first.

"World Cup is a distant thing. Right now our focus should be on doing something good in Asia. If we set high goals at the moment we are going to get frustrated. So we should first look to do something in our continent. As they say you should take small steps and not rush to the goal," Sunil Chhetri said.

A very valid point from Sunil then many forget when they dream about playing in the World Cup that India has to ideally establish itself amongst the Top 10 in Asia before even dreaming to play a World Cup, then North Korea causing an upset and getting through to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa happens rarely in Asian football then normally the biggies like Japan, South Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Iran are the top candidates to go through with sides from the Middle East like Bahrain and Qatar aiming to qualify, but having failed so far.

We need to play over the next decade the AFC Asian Cup regularly, 2011 with the comeback after 27 years was a good comeback. Now it should become normal for India to play at the highest level in Asia.

Also present at the event in Delhi was former Manchester United star and Trinidad&Tobago captain Dwight Yorke who said, "To see India playing in the World Cup one day, that is going to be the dream and with the support from the AIFF and the government we will see Indian players playing at the top level."

Bayern Coach van Gaal & his four future options

FC Bayern Munich coach Louis van Gaal has his own mind. A current example is when the Dutchman talks about his own future. Van Gaal has a contract until summer 2012 with Bayern Munich, but as he himself says he is considering four options for his own future following the end of his contract.

Speaking to the Sunday edition of the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung he talked about those four options. Number one is to become the coach of a big national team and lead them into the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, number two is to return to his home club Ajax Amsterdam and become the clubs Director of Sports, number three is to extend his contract at Bayern Munich, while number four would be to end his coaching career altogether.

A few days earlier he had told German tabloid Bild something similar, "After 2012 I will only sign one more contract, either extending with Bayern, with a national team or at Ajax Amsterdam as general manager.

And van Gaal had also said, "I'm not working for the money any more. I am just doing it for fun."

Such interviews and those personal options once more highlight Louis van Gaal and his character. He is a straight forward guy, who likes to organise and plan things, ideally well in advance and even if it looks arrogant he shows what he is capable off and what we wants. The only real ambition left for him as a coach is to guide a team in a FIFA World Cup.

Blatter considers World Cup changes

In an interview with the German weekly magazine Focus for their next edition coming out on Monday FIFA president Sepp Blatter has said that certain changes could be applied to group stage matches in FIFA World Cup's to make it more entertaining and attractive. And those changes surely sound interesting, but once more they don't have anything to do with technology.

Mr. Blatter had made some suggestions for changes about six years back, but those ideas were not excepted by FIFA's governing body. The last real changes came with the implementation of the golden goal rule and then making it fairer with the silver goal rule, which was later scrapped altogether after only being in existence for the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France on the global stage. And the only championship to be decided by golden goal was the 1996 European Championship finals at London's Wembley Stadium when Germany beat the Czech Republic 2-1 through an Oliver Bierhoff golden goal.

Now Mr. Blatter is considering of proposing certain changes like abolishing draws in preliminary group stage matches in World Cup's. His suggestion is to have direct penalty shootouts to decide a winner or adding a sudden-death overtime. This the FIFA president thinks could force teams to take a more pro-active approach in the 90 minutes in the group stages then a rather wait and watch approach, which often bored fans around the world in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

I personally feel it is an interesting idea! And it should be tried and tested at Youth World Cup's and if found fit could be implemented at senior level. It could help avoid too many of those boring goalless draws and if the winners are given two points and the loser one, then it could open up the whole group equations. But now one will have to wait and see if Mr. Blatter just mentioned these changes in an interview or if he seriously would pursue these changes for the good of the game. Also one would have to see what other FIFA members and the footballers themselves say.