GUWAHATI, Dec 3 : Renowned FIFA instructor Pieter Abraham Hamberg of The Netherlands has said that the northeast have several quality coaches at the helm of affairs for developing football in the region.

“I do not have much knowledge about Indian football but all I can say that the Northeast have got quality coaches,” Hamberg said while attending the concluding ceremony of the six-day coaching clinic which started on November 25.

Altogether 28 coaches, 20 from Assam and the rest eight from Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram attended the clinic.

He further urged the coaches to conduct as much training session as possible for better development of football in the region. “FIFA have specially stressed on Youth Development and the coaches’ clinic is a part of the Programme. The best way to learn football is by playing football. So I urge the coaches to conduct as much training sessions as possible for the youngsters get the taste of football,” Hamberg stated.

Pieter, who played alongside legendary footballer Johan Cruyff, is highly impressed with the popularity of football in the region. “I did not know that the football is so popular in India particularly in this part of the country. I thought it was always about cricket,” he maintained.

“Football can become the No.1 sport in India when the country can improve their standings in FIFA rankings. That can happen only when the coaches can produce quality players who can represent India,” Hamberg observed.

Assam Football Association (AFA) secretary Mr. Ankur Dutta, also a Vice-President of AIFF said that the objective is to coach the coaches so that they can train the youth.

“The clinic was aimed at giving exposure to the local coaches. They can now share their experience and learning with the youths, which will definitely help in developing the game in the region,” Dutta said.

He further stated that the AFA would pursue the AIFF and the FIFA for allotting more Development Programmes for the region. “The AFA would urge the Federation to conduct Asian Football Confederation (AFC) ‘B’ license course in Assam. There are several ‘C’ license coaches in the state. But the criteria needed for a coach to train a professional club are that he should be a ‘B’ license holder. So the course will help in producing more coaches who can train professional clubs,” Dutta added.

The concluding programme was also attended by Director of Assam Directorate of Sports and Youth Welfare Gaurav Bothra who opined that the coaches clinic will help in further development of football in the region. Guwahati Sports Association (GSA) president and vice-chairman of Sports Authority of Assam Rana Goswami and Sports Authority of India (SAI) northeast regional sub-centre  director Subhas Basumatary also graced the occasion.