Indian teams must play more with established clubs: Zico

NEW DELHI: Whenever Zico speaks, the world of football stops to listen. Saturday was another such day, where the Brazilian legend ensured his words commanded attention. Having much to say on the improvement of Indian football, he reiterated the need to play more Indians in the ISL.
"I am always in favour of giving more opportunity to Indian players. Instead of bringing six or ten foreign players, we can bring four high quality foreigners.They can help the Indian players to play more. The idea is not to put them aside or outshine them," said the FC Goa coach on the eve of his team's match against fourth-placed Delhi Dynamos.
"I spoke to a few players from Bengaluru FC after their game against Iraqi Air Force side. They felt such a difference in terms of the physical strength of the team, the overall performance," revealed Zico.
"There is a lack of interaction between Indian teams and the ones who are already established at the international level. The solution for this is to have exchange matches with teams who are playing high level football - teams from Japan, Australia and UAE," he continued, "The Indian teams should play more football with such countries. There needs to be more interaction."
"It is very important to apply the same rules which are applied in all same rules which are applied in all Asian Federation be applied here as well. The national team can have more friendly games against strong teams from Asia and get stronger. After that, they can even face the top and strong teams from Europe and South America," the 63-year-old pointed out.
Zico, who has been vocal about the poor standard of refereeing, said, "Bring refs from Brazil, Spain, Italy and Germany who can teach the refs here."