Latest News

September 8th 2003

Welcome to the new-look website - I hope you like it. I have a lot of news since I last wrote, starting with my participation on the UEFA Pro Licence course, which began in June at Warwick University. The course involves a great deal of work and numerous assignments on a variety of topics relating to coaching and management at the top level. Only a few candidates were selected, so it is a proud achievement for me and I am looking forward to learning a lot.

While back in England I was also able to fulfil a boyhood dream - lifting the FA Cup at Highbury, home of my beloved Gunners and the current cup holders. I was down at Highbury to do an interview for the official Arsenal magazine - read all about that in the Media section of the site.

Meanwhile, things in India have been going well. We recently set up a Sports Medicine Programme that included 48 of our national team players from various age groups as well as seniors. The programme included a comprehensive fitness and medical assessment – the first time India has done anything like this - and was a huge success. I must give praise to Dr Vece Paes and everyone else involved in making it happen - none of it would have been possible without their input and total commitment. All the top clubs in India have now followed suit, and this can only be good for Indian football.

On top of this I had to get our U18s ready for the trip of a lifetime to the Milk Cup in Northern Ireland and the Ian Rush Trophy, or Welsh Cup as it otherwise known. Before leaving for the UK, the doom merchants were saying we would lose all our games and come back with our tails between our legs! Well have I got news for them: not only did we take a few notable scalps in the Milk Cup, including Dynamo Kiev , County Antrim and Kilmarnock, we also notched up some very good performances against Preston North End where we went down to a disputed penalty, and River Plate, again in controversial circumstances. Preston went on to the final and lost by a golden goal to Manchester United.

The quality of the opposition at the Milk Cup was evident and games against the likes of River Plate were a great experience. That match was going really well for us until yet another terrible refereeing decision went against us, as our keeper was sent off for allegedly handling the ball outside the area. The red card was rescinded the next day, but with ten men against River Plate it was asking a little too much and we eventually lost 1-2.

So, all in all, we gave a very good account of ourselves at the Milk Cup and hopefully we will be invited back.

Next stop was Wales. After a couple of ordinary performances we went to beat Botofogo of Brazil in the final to lift the Trophy – an absolutely fantastic achievement for our boys who proved that Indian footballers are no pushovers. I am very hopeful that they can go on and make the senior squad in the next few years. I would also like to give a great deal of the credit for this win to my assistant, Sateevan Balan who handled the team in my absence. He has worked tirelessly with me from the start and has been a huge help.

I am writing this from the beautiful Kingdom of Bhutan where I am conducting a coaching course for FIFA for a couple of weeks. I will then be back in India to start preparing our U19 and U17 squads for the upcoming AFC qualifying games.

A special mention must also go to my lovely wife, who will probably see this before she sees me! She is at home in Goa looking after our two girls Paula and Christiana and doing a marvellous job. I will be home soon - promise.

Finally, I have to say thank you to everyone who has sent me emails over the last few months as always your support is greatly appreciated.

All the best

Stephen