"I'd want the fans to come and see the games" - Wim Koevermans Interview

Wim Koevermans was appointed the Indian national football team coach in June last year, when he took the responsibility from Savio Madeira. Under his watch, the Indian national team successfully defended their Nehru Cup title last year and achieved some remarkable results. He was present in Bangalore recently for the auction of Indian National Football Team’s jersey and ball. Sportskeeda caught up with him for an interview. Here’re the excerpts:

India has bid for the U-17 world cup. How do you think this will help the infrastructure?

If that happens, it will lift football a big way in India. Stadiums have to be renovated, or even built in some cases. But yes, it will be a big upliftment for football.

How often do you interact with Arthur Papas, who coaches the U-22 team?

I speak to him about the development of the players, I have been a lot more in contact with him.

What about Sunil Chhetri? Since he is in Portugal, is he in contact with you?

We are in contact with him, and we realize that sometimes he plays and sometimes he is on the bench. He’s training 4 times a week with good players, that’s a help for him. But we monitor him just as much as the other players and want to know what exactly the situation is.

What do you think about young star Brandon Fernandes?

Like I said, I can’t go into every player or we’ll be here for hours (laughs). But there are some talented players in our list. Me and my 2 assistant coaches, we see a lot of games. So we will try to get in some new players.

Wim Koevermans at the auction of Indian National Football Team’s jersey and ball in Bangalore.

What do you think of Mohun Bagan’s ban?

If something happens on the pitch and the rules are applied, that’s the way it is. If it is in the rule book, it has to be applied. I think there will be some meetings around it. It is a tough decision, and from the national team point of view, a lot of players cannot play at the moment. Of course, I am not happy with that, but I also understand that if something happens, you have to apply the rule book. But it’s a tough punishment.

We hardly get a full house at the stadiums, and when a club like Mohun Bagan gets banned, wouldn’t it affect the sport?

Of course, when you look at the affects of all that. But the clubs know the rules. If something happens and it is stated in the rule book, then it has to be applied. I don’t think anyone can be frustrated by that. That’s the way it is. But it is a tough rule, to be honest.

But have you considered any alternatives for the players who won’t be able to play now?

Well, let’s see what the outcome will be. In the meantime, the players are training. Hopefully, they can play some matches. It will take almost half a year, I think, but the players will want to play. I cannot say what will happen, that’s up to the top officials.

What are the targets for the national team?

Well, I don’t look too far in years. We want to go up in the FIFA rankings and we want to qualify for the AFC Cup. I can say we want to qualify for the world cup, but that’s very far away as there are a lot of things that need to be done. But we want to qualify for tournaments that are going to take place next year. There’s also the SAFF cup and we want to win it.

We talked about the U-17 world cup. You’ve been here for more than 6 months and have travelled to all the football destinations in the country. What do you think are the chances that India can win the bid?

If they agree on giving the U-17 world cup (to us), it will be in 2017 which is 4 years from now. There are a lot of stadiums in India, but you have to upgrade them and renovate them for the tournament. But these are the rules of FIFA and they have some criteria that you have to follow up. You need to develop a few things, bring in new training facilities and it will help improve the game in the country.

With the time you have been in charge, do you think you had enough time to impose yourself on the team?

Any national team coach has only a small time with the players and that’s difficult. I have had them for 5 weeks, including the Nehru Cup. For me, as a start, that’s great. We planted a lot of good seeds, and so we have to take them into the other games as well.

When you play on FIFA dates, sometimes you only have 2 or 3 days to prepare. But then, that is also something we need to realize and learn that in a short term, we need to build a team. Of course, that’s my job. It’s not possible to get them for 5 to 6 weeks together. It’s better if you can have them every day.

For the AFC Cup and the SAFF cup, we’ll get a couple of weeks of preparation. But for the FIFA dates, if it’s a double header, we’ll get them for 6 to 8 days.

What would be your message for the fans?

Come and see the games. The fans are great in India. We saw in the Nehru Cup, they are very energetic. We had a great atmosphere in the stadium. We play football for the fans. We don’t play for the birds or for the VIPs, of course they are also fans. But we play for the fans that love football and there are a lot of such loving fans in India. So please come to the stadium, a lot.