Panaji: Indian football coach Bob Houghton said on Thursday that defending the title of the SAFF Cup Football Championship would be a tough job.

"We are placed in a tough group along with Maldives, Nepal and Pakistan. Playing against the Maldives will be tough as they are the hosts and Pakistan have a few English footballers playing on dual passports, so it's going to be an interesting SAFF tournament," he said.

The pre-national camp began on Wednesday to select few youngsters who will be joined by the seniors from April 5.

The players will be camped in Goa until May 31 and there are plans to organise some international friendlies before embarking to Male for the group A engagements at the SAFF tournament from June 3, Houghton said.

Asked why India had not succeded at the international level, he said Indian footballers were talented, skilled and disciplined but lack the necessary height to succeed at the international level.

"It is very difficult for Indian players to play at international level because our average height is 172 cm, which is not good enough," the coach said.

Citing an example, Houghton said the average height of France and Italy players in the previous World Cup was 186 cm and that makes a huge diffference as more goals being scored through set-piece moves, where tall players give teams a big advantage.
Source : PTI