Constantine

Calcutta: National soccer coach Stephen Constantine isn’t too worried about India’s horrible 0-7 loss to Japan, away, and says he isn’t too unhappy about the way the team played. He also said Wednesday that he has “a contract from a national team (he did not specify the country) pending, but I am willing to run the Indian contract through.”

He said it was “unfair” that “people talk about my performance. Maybe some people want the country to lose, so my stay is cut short. But in the 23 matches India have played, we have performed badly only in two — vs Oman and vs Japan.”

He said: “Japan are a strong footballing nation. We played out best against them. Even their coach Zico had good things to say about us after the tie.”

He said the likes of “Sasthi Duley are good for club matches, not the national team. And Surkumar Singh isn’t playing to my system. That’s why they are out of the camp.”

The camp for the Japan pre-World Cup home match starts here on August 4/5, and Constantine said: “Yes, the selectors will be around, but I will have the final say in selecting the team.”

Meanwhile, it has been learnt that about 1500 Japanese spectators will be in the city on September 8 to watch their national team play India. Letters from the Japanese embassy and also from a few companies are reaching the IFA office everyday. “They want to book tickets and a majority of them have even sent the money through courier. We are planning to make a separate enclosure for them at the Salt lake Stadium,” IFA secretary Subrata Dutta said.

According to Dutta, AIFF president Priya Ranjan Das Munshi will meet him, state transport minister Subhas Chakraborty and another AIFF representative on Saturday to discuss certain points regarding the match. A television production team from Japan has already visited the Salt Lake Stadium to check broadcasting arrangements.