India U-19 team to play four-nation tourney in Croatia

The U-19 teams of France, Croatia and Slovenia will be the other participants.

The U-19 tour has been organised “to take forward Indian Arrows’ pre-season [exposure],” according to national team director Abhishek Yadav.

The India U-19 football team is set to play a four-nation international tournament involving the U-19 teams of France, Croatia and Slovenia. The tourney, organised by the Croatian Football Federation in cooperation with Slovenian Football Federation, will be held in Croatia from September 4 to September 9.

According to a All-India Football Federation communique, the tour has been organised by the country’s governing body to provide the best possible preparation for the U-19 players for the forthcoming I-League season, and for the U-19 AFC Championship qualification next year.

Good exposure

AIFF general secretary Kushal Das said: “It gives me immense satisfaction that our age-group teams are now regularly facing national teams of Asian champions and even world champions.”

Read: Constantine - We're trying to give as much exposure as possible

National team director Abhishek Yadav said, “It is our aim to give regular opportunities to our teams to compete against top footballing nations of the World across age-groups and gender. It is under this agenda that for the Indian Arrows, we got opportunities to face 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup runners-up Venezuela and six-time U-20 world champion Argentina (in August 2018). Concurrently, we were working on opportunities to face the squads of Slovenia, Croatia, France and Serbia to take forward Arrows’ pre-season.”

The matches will be held in the cities of Zagreb, Lucko and Velika.