Former players and current soccer coaches' body constituted in Guwahati

Our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI: Former players and current soccer coaches have come under one umbrella with an aim to develop the standard of football coaching in the state.

A new organization named- Association of Assam Football Coaches- was formed in the city yesterday with AFC license holder Bidhan Das and Mantu Boro as its president and the secretary respectively. Pradip Brahma and Chinmoy Bora named the vice president and treasurer of the association. Six former footballers and coaches will also be the part of the association as advisors and they are: Tosen Bora, Gilbertson Sangma, Debashish Roy, Ganesh Rai, Juel Bey and Subir Dey.

Talking to The Sentinel the president of the Association of Assam Football coaches Bidhan Das said, "There is no dearth of talent in Assam but still we have not managed to make progress as per the expectation in the senior level because of lack of sufficient number of coaches in the grass root stage. There is also no uniformity of coaching across the state. These are the prime reason that a section of former footballers and coaches of the state united under one umbrella and decided to work for the betterment of football coaching in the State."

Sharing about their initial plans Das said, "We will organize two-day classes in each districts of the state once the situation turns normal. Our experts are preparing courses in the line of AFC. Once it is ready we will meet the officials of the Assam Football Association and All India Football Federation for their approval. At the initial stage anyone who has knowledge in football and is interested to become soccer coach can join our classes in their respective districts. We feel it would help us to increase the number of coaches at the grass root level and also to implement uniform coaching pattern across the state."