India’s Under-17 World Cup team had too many foreign exposure tours before the tournament, according to Steven Martens, technical director at Fifa. However, he said the move to send the squad on exposure tours was understandable given the lack of a league structure at the youth level when the process started in 2013, after India won the bid to host the tournament.

“The balance of training to game time is too low for the team that they have prepared for the Under-17 World Cup,” Martens said. “You can’t blame them because there was no competition for these boys to regularly play in.

“That’s why I understand that exposure tours were the only solution. Because there was a lack of local competition, I understand why they did it, but it’s not sustainable over the long-term.”

Under former coach Nicolai Adam, the Indian U-17 team played international games and friendlies on 15 exposure tours in a span of 26 months, often with only a few days of rest in between. Adam’s successor Luis Norton de Matos has averaged slightly fewer games per month, choosing to focus on the training ground instead.

Martens has said that boys of the same age in England and in Europe play 70 games per year, much more than their Indian counterparts, but most of those were at home. “The level of play there is very good,” he said. “The top [teams out] of them don’t play a lot internationally. They play 60 domestically and 10 outside.”

The Belgian, a former CEO of the Belgian football association who became Fifa’s technical director this March, also doesn’t think that going to a top-class academy is the best idea for youngsters since there’s heavy competition with the first-team players there.

“A lot of leagues are feeder leagues,” he said. “Germany has a good conversion ratio of their own players. England is much more of a challenge because they have a lot of foreign players on their books. Only the best youngsters come through. They have a much bigger loan system, where they send players to the second division or other national leagues. If you look at Belgium, Holland, these are the leagues that feed players, or where players go on to get their first experience of a top division club before moving on.”

‘Premature’ to shut AIFF elite academies down

Asked if it was the right time for the United States’ residency program and the All India Football Federation’s Elite Academies to shut down, Martens said, “For India, it could be premature. In America, they have developmental academies and MLS academies, which are getting better. So maybe they’re saying now that we have 60-70 academies, 20 MLS, 40 non-MLS and developing players of a high quality, it makes sense.”

While the US’ residency program lasted for 18 years, the AIFF Elite academy is shutting down after less than a decade of operations, mostly catering to the Under-14, U-16 and U-19 age groups. Sources within the AIFF have indicated that they will be shutting down as clubs are now mandated to have their own residential academies as per the federation’s and the Asian Football Confederation’s licensing criteria.

“It’s a leap of faith, shutting down the academies and expecting players to be produced by clubs,” Martens said. “I asked the All India Football Federation a question: you have a 3-star and 4-star academy rating system. If you had to rate your own academies, how many stars will you give them? How many of these clubs will get three stars as defined in your accreditation system?”

Martens said it was the responsibility of the clubs to take up youth development and the AIFF has to be a partner by support them. He also felt that it was not mandatory for the largest academies to go for younger age groups as long as competitive opportunities were present in all regions.

“Let them start from [age] 12, in the condition that the number of playing opportunities at the state association level grow,” he said. “In the first level, the Under-12s are generally a much more local competition.”

He added, “They could start to scout from the academies of the I-League clubs and the Indian Super League. At that time, you need a lot of domestic exposure and good quality coaching. It’s over 12 that you need international exposure. I’m not saying you should not have it but that’s not going to be a key factor.”