B D Narayankar reports
Bangalore, Apr 23 (PTI) Having won the I-League crown in
their debut season, Bengaluru Football Club have now set their
sights on becoming the first Indian club to qualify for the
prestigious AFC Champions League.
India gets a play-off slot for the AFC Champions League
and I-League champions Bengaluru FC will have a chance to have
a shot at taking part in the continent's top-flight club
tournament.
Last year Pune FC lost in the first of the three-round
play-off competition.
"We want to continue to dream big and want to be the
first Indian Club to ever qualify for the AFC Champions
League," BFC CEO Parth Jindal told reporters when asked about
the future aim of his club.
Jindal said the club's another target is to try and
retain the trophy next year also.
"Once we have won this (I-League), we are not going to
let it go very easily, and in order to do that we will have to
improve; we will have to get some new players in; we will have
to reshuffle some of the things because football is a very
ruthless game and if you stand still somebody is going to run
past you," he said.
On Indian Super League (ISL) which is scheduled to be
held in September-October, Jindal said "it caters to different
market and wish good luck to them".
Jindal said that the three-year relegation safety for his
team granted by the AIFF gave a great degree of comfort as the
level of investment was not small.
Replying to a query, Jindal said credit would go to the
backroom staff including Heal Institute of Mumbai for keeping
players fit and injury-free.
"A couple of players did get seriously injured and were
flown to Mumbai to go through preventive care and some sort of
minor surgeries. Even if the players were injured, they made
it sure the recovery was quick," he said.
Jindal said his company would set up a residential
football academy in Vijaynagar, for which the ground is being
constructed and prepared.
"Hopefully it will be a full-time residential academy,
not only for Bangalore but also for entire country," Jindal
said.
Captain Sunil Chettri said criticism from people that he
has not played well for clubs motivated him do better.
"Whenever people say I have played well for the country
than for the club - just makes me more hungry to do well," he
said.
"It doesn't matter what people say I just want to do what
I can do on the field to my best of abilities. It wouldn't
change when I wasn't scoring and wouldn't change when I am
scoring now."
Head Coach Ashley Westwood said the training sessions
were no different than what he had in England back home.
"We did not try to make any difference. We came here
without a system and the lads adopted to that quickly ... and
that is reason we have been quite successful," he said.
Talking about his journey which had begun last September,
Westwood said, "Obviously, to a win a league is never going to
be easy. So, there were lots of difficulties along the way."
"Our main difficulty was opposition coming to our ground
and we going to theirs - that demands an extra 10 or 15 per
cent of an effort," he said.
Replying to a query, Westwood said the toughest
opposition were East Bengal.
On the standard of referees, Westwood said he had not
commented on them as long as they committed an honest mistake.
"They try to do their best for the game. You can't
criticise somebody who make honest mistake. That is a part and
parcel of football," he said.
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