Pre-World Cup tournament is a must: Robert Baan

AIFF technical director Robert Bann has stressed on the need to organise a pre World Cup tournament in 2016 involving countries from Asia, Africa, Europe and South America as part of preparation for hosting the U-17 FIFA World Cup in 2017.
This is part of Baan's presentation on how India should best prepare for its maiden stint in the U-17 FIFA World Cup.
Similarly, the World Cup team should also travel to different parts of the World for exposure trips.
"Players need to adapt to different cultures, different playing styles. Also you need International Tournaments every year leading up to a Pre World Cup tournament in the country involving all the top nations," Baan said.

The views were expressed in the two-day FICCI GOAL 2014 Indian Football Summit which ended here today.
Baan also laid stress on having more and more competitions for the U-17 World Cup team.

"Good Coach Education and training is not sufficient. You need to have regular Competitions at that age-group which is preparing for the World Cup. That is very important."
The former Australia and The Netherlands technical director pointed out that success at the youth spectacle in three years time is relative for a country like India.
"Success can be a semifinal or a final finish. Success can also be a group stage exit. It depends who you are. For India, 2-1 defeats in the Group stages would be a decent performance. A 6-0 humbling would be disastrous at the same time," Baan said.

According to him, there should ideally be 40 matches per year for the Boys, two Academies with 30 players each (26+4 goalkeepers), and Tournaments like a National School Tournament, a National Sate Tournament and also a National Academy Tournament.
Speaking about the technical aspect of what should be ideally followed, Baan said: "Build up from the back, then always passing forward, tight defending and change of position are some of the things we need to work on if we are to build a competitive Team for the World Cup.
"Nowadays, you don't see a player sticking to one position all the time. (Arjen) Robben is sometimes on the right and sometimes on the left. All these things need to be inculcated," added Baan.