National players should be preserved: Constantine

India's newly-appointed football coach Stephen Constantine has made it clear that his players will not be allowed to take part in state association leagues before the coming Busan Asian Games in South Korea.

Constantine is of the view that state leagues should be restricted to under-17 and under-19 players.

"This will give the players an opportunity to develop themselves; then they can play with the senior players in the National Football League," he said, adding: "The Federation should start thinking on a long-term basis."

Constantine said his interest is in the national side, and he would not allow the team's position to be "jeopardised by indulging in negligence".

"There's no point in tiring and injuring the players who are representing the national team by making them play 20 matches a month in bad conditions, on bad pitches and in not so high standards," he said.

While the team takes a deserving break following the LG Cup triumph, the English coach will travel to Delhi to check out the facilities, team kits and infrastructure for the national camp, ahead of the team's tour of England, where it will play a couple of exhibition matches.

"I want to have a look at the facilities that my team will get while preparing for the Asian Games. I have also acquired video tapes of the Chinese, Bangladeshi and Turkmenistan teams, who are clubbed with India in Group 'A' for the Asian Games. They are tough sides but the national team must believe in itself; when they do so they can do the unbeleivable," Constantine said.

"We cannot really rest on our laurels. The last time India did something at the Asian Games' soccer was in 1962 when they won the ten-team affair. I want to hold on to this ray of hope that we got in Vietnam and open up a whole new world for the Indian national squad at the Asian level," he concluded.