The upcoming AIFF Youth Cup will be an opportunity to evaluate the progress made by the Indian team for next year's FIFA U-17 World Cup, says All India Football Federation general secretary Kushal Das.
The tournament, which features the U-16 national teams of USA, Korea Republic, Tanzania, Malaysia besides hosts India, kicks off in Goa on Sunday.
The event in Goa is seen as a pre-cursor to the quadrennial Under-17 World Cup India is hosting in October 2017.
"It is essential to evaluate the progress made by the U-16 Team which is preparing for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup and to understand where we need to improve further. While the All India Football Federation has a detailed plan for exposures to various Countries, it is such tournaments that can give us a good indication of the progress," Das said today.
AIFF has been providing exposure for the U-17 World Cup team and Das said the aim is to make the boys play as many quality oppositions as possible in the run-up to the U-17 tournament.
"As the U-17 World Cup will have representation from all continents, the idea is to make the U-17 World Cup team play quality opposition during their exposure tours. They have already been to Germany, Spain, UAE, South Africa and would be embarking on more exposure tours to Europe and Brazil."
AIFF is stressing on a fool proof scouting system.
"We have been able to identify a few boys from the scouting system, and the exhibition matches which were played with state associations and SAI teams, and also from the U-15 league. The scouted boys are currently on trials. We will continue with this programme and hope that before the U-17 World Cup commences we would have found the best possible talents to represent the country.
"I would also like to add that the current boys who are at the academy training under head coach Nicolai Adam have all been scouted by the AIFF from various national competitions and trials since 2013."
Asked if there were plans to make the AIFF Youth Cup an annual event, Das preferred not to commit.
"It's too early to commit whether it will be an annual event of not. Based on the response and the benefits of the inaugural edition, we will take a decision on it later.
