Baichung Bhutia has expressed unhappiness over the way the All India Football Federation (AIFF) is running the youth development programme in the country, and the Indian skipper said there is a dearth of worthy successors after him and various others in the national team, if they hang up their boots.

“I have been playing for past 15 years, but I haven’t seen any improvement in the youth development programme. Here in India, we don’t have any place where kids can go and play. We need to improve on our infrastructure,” said Bhutia.

The 32-year-old lamented that the team was not getting enough matches to play and thus was failing to sustain the momentum.

“After the Nehru Cup victory (in August, last year). We didn’t play a tournament for nine months before the SAFF Championship.

“We need to keep playing regularly to keep the momentum going and increase the coordination within the team, especially with the AFC Challenge Cup approaching,” he said after the national camp ahead of the Portugal tour concluded.

The skipper, meanwhile, heaped rich praise over Bob Houghton and said he had learnt more under the national coach than in his entire playing career before.

“What I learned in the two years under Bob must be more than what I’d learnt in the whole of my professional career before. His understanding of game is very good,” said Bhutia.

Steven Dias included

Meanwhile, coach Houghton sprang a surprise on Tuesday by naming injured Steven Dias in place of Kuttimani in the 27-member Indian team for the 11-day training-cum-exposure tour to Portugal.

... contd.