An upbeat Indian football team leaves for Dubai on Friday night for their six-week training tour abroad in preparation for the Nehru Cup tournament in August. Twenty-seven players and seven officials, including chief coach Bob Houghton, were to leave for Dubai on Thursday but was delayed by a day after the players from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Goa and Kerala did not get their visas on time.

The players from the four states got their visas cleared by the Spanish Consulate in Mumbai on Friday. The visas of other players had been cleared by the Spanish Embassy in New Delhi on Thursday.

In Dubai, the Indian team will have an 11-day training stint at the Emirates Sevens ground, owned by Emirates Airlines before embarking for a one-month training camp at FC Barcelona.

The Dubai leg is being arranged in association with Gulf International Promotions and its Chief Executive Officer Raul Fernandes said Houghton's boys will not play any exhibition match in Dubai.

"The Indian team will not play any matches in Dubai. They will have only training sessions at the Emirates Sevens ground," Fernandes said from Dubai.

"It's a private ground of Emirates Airlines and the surface is natural grass, not artificial turf," he said.

Meanwhile, the players are upbeat about the trip to Dubai and Barcelona. "Training in Barcelona would be great. We will get to use world class facilities there, something which we don't get here," said captain Bhaichung Bhutia.

Central defender Gouramangi Singh said the trip would boost the chances for his team to defend the title they won in 2007.

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