19:50 HRS IST

Kolkata, Sep 22 (PTI) Indian football icon Bhaichung
Bhutia was all praise for the national U-16 side who have
produced an impressive performance in the qualifying round in
Iran.

“They showed a lot of promise and very hard working. It’s
extremely satisfying that the boys qualified on their own and
credit should be given to them,” the former India captain said
here today.

“They lost just one match but did fantastically well
against Bahrain and Lebanon that shows that the team is
shaping up really well for the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2017.”

India thrashed Bahrain 5-0 and Lebanon 6-0 in the
qualifiers at Tabriz City to finish second in Group E. India
gets an automatic qualification in the 2016 AFC U-16
Championships as host country but would have otherwise booked
a berth on merit as one of the second best placed teams from
across the 11 groups.

Nepal, who finished second in Group B in the qualifiers,
took India’s place and made it to AFC Under-16 Championships
final round to be held in India from September 15 to October 2
next year.

On the Stephen Constantine-coached senior team who just
have just one win and have lost three consecutive matches (1-2
to Oman, 1-2 to Guam and 0-3 to Iran) in the 2018 FIFA World
Cup qualifiers, Bhutia said that the Englishman must be given
some more time.

“Obviously the performance was not up to the mark but
let’s not forget that Stephen played with many new players…

It was like a new team. You can’t compare Indian football with
English Premier League or the way it’s played in Europe. They
don’t change the national squad often. We have to make sure
that club and federation are ready to release players for a
long time,” he said.

“We have to give him (Constantine) some more time. I’ve
always maintained priority should always be given to the
national team if they play well football in India would
improve.”

Bhutia said India must push the I-League without thinking
about merging it with the Indian Super League.

“We have to push the I-League. Right now there’s need to
have both I-League and ISL together. In terms of standard of
play, and the quality of the tournament it’s very difficult to
merge ISL right now,” said Bhutia.

“We have to make sure that I-League is so much of push
that it reaches the level of ISL and then we can think of
merging the both,” he said.