New Delhi, Feb. 4: As the India senior national football team embark for their 20-day training camp in Dubai ahead of the 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Doha, the All India Football Federation said on Thursday the squad would play Thailand in Bangkok on September 4 in addition to a further four international friendlies at home in September.
Speaking at a press conference, national team coach Bob Houghton said that a 30-strong senior squad would be together for a duration of six months, as had originally been envisioned in the ‘Goal 2011’ project, leading up to the quadrennial showcase next January in Qatar.
"The senior team will head to Portugal for a training camp in July and stay in Europe till the end of August. In September, the team will head to Bangkok and face Thailand on September 4," said the Englishman.
The former Fulham midfielder added that the AIFF has written to the national federations of eight Asian countries — Iraq, Bahrain, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, North Korea and Jordan — to invite them for international friendlies on September 8, 15, 22 and 29. "We have sent invitations to eight countries and we will finalise the teams shortly. Barring the top four teams in Asia (Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Australia) we have invited the strongest teams in the region and it will be good practice ahead of the Asian Cup," he said.
With two 2014 World Cup qualifiers, on October 8 and 12, India will get further match practice. Depending on their results India could play World Cup qualifiers in November, barring which the players will return to Lisbon and stay there till the end of the month before holding their final camp in one of Gulf countries in December to acclimatise themselves to conditions in Doha.
On the Dubai camp, Houghton said, "We will play two matches. On February 20 we face Al Shahab and on February 23 against another UAE-based club (likely to be Al Nasr)."
Age Correspondent