Wenger to help India build scouting system

NEW DELHI: Four months since taking charge of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), president Kalyan Chaubey and secretary-general Shaji Prabhakaran presented a roadmap for Indian football on Saturday.

Titled ‘Vision 2047’, the 94-slide presentation sets out a path for Indian football to become a dominant force in Asia by the country’s 100th year of independence. Among the 11 core areas identified by the federation — symbolising the number of players on a football pitch — the emphasis was laid most on ‘Talent Identification and Development’. AIFF informed that former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will personally devote time to put in place a data-driven scouting system for the national team.

“Wenger has already assigned work to his team members to come to India. We can initiate the Talent Development Scheme in India by February, which will help us find more players. We are going to work on this project with the help of FIFA. We will be scouting players on a scientific basis,” Prabhakaran said.

Wenger, who was the Arsenal manager from 1996 to 2018, is now FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development. AIFF administrators said they will provide more details of Wenger’s involvement next month.

Elaborating on how their approach will be dictated by data, Prabhakaran said: “The data driven approach is very comprehensive. It won’t be specific to players. It will influence every aspect of football. That way, we will be able to come to the right decision. Data means objectivity. But right now, we don’t have the data with us. We need to put the right structure in place so that we have access to the data.”