EXCLUSIVE // DAILY DIARY // June 30

Tuesday, 30. June 2009 - IndianFootball.Com reporter

IndianFootball.Com presents the EXCLUSIVE TEAM INDIA DIARY!

Find out what our Team India stars and officials say during their camp in Dubai and Barcelona...

Please check this page regularly for JUNE 30 updates!


India coach Bob Houghton faced the media today and made several interesting comments on the camp and his statements prior to the departue to Dubai. Bob was accompanied by Sunil Chetri, Subrata Pal and Abhishek Yadav.

Bob Houghton (Coach)

• Normally at this time, we would be training in India.
• We would have trained in Goa, but as you know the rains make it difficult for us to train there.
• I would like to thank Raul Fernandes for organizing the camp here in Dubai.
• On the last two times we have been here, we have trained at different training grounds and they have all been very good.
• What the players have achieved over the last two years is considerable.
• We have got two teams in Kolkata that have got a very big fan base and bigger reputations. They have been around for 100 years, but don’t have a training ground. That is not acceptable today if we are trying to move things forward.
• You know, our champion club last season had no assistant coach, no fitness coach, no goal-keeping coach, no physio, no doctor, no training ground.
• Now I say that to you because I have been in India for three years and I am fed up of saying it to people who don’t listen. It’s not fair to the players, they deserve much better.
• I am already at war back in India and I am sure these statements will put me at an even bigger war when I get back.
• But it’s important to say it because other countries are moving forward quicker than we are.

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