AIFF president Praful Patel spoke positively on the prospect of continuing with luis Norton de Matos as the coach of the Indian squad, adding that the coach has done a tremendous job in keeping the team happy.
"I have complimented de Matos for a great job before," said Patel during the FIFA press conference here on Thursday. "For us, the team should not be unhappy. We wanted a team to be mentally, emotionally and every way happy and confident to go forward. You cannot have a disconnection between coach and players. You cannot have an unhappy lot of boys playing for the national team. It would have been a disaster. The result is not important, the way they play is — the mental, physical and emotional conditioning must be in sync with each other.
"So de Matos has done a great job. He signed a contract till the World Cup. But rest assured, if he wants to continue with the project, we will be grateful to have his service."
Despite losing all three matches in the under-17 World Cup, de Matos' side was praised for their positive performance in the 1-2 defeat against Colombia.
Patel previously announced before the start of the World Cup that India has officially made a bit to host the under-20 World Cup - to be held in 2019.
"We have bid for the under-20 World Cup to be held in 2019. I don't know the result yet but I will use all the goodwill. I will be attending the FIFA executive committee meeting tomorrow. I will use this opportunity for the future of Indian football," said Patel.
Also present with him at the conference was FIFA head of tournament committee Jaime Yarza and FIFA tournament director Javier Ceppi. Yarza said Indian infrastructure is not yet ready to host an under-20 World Cup but the growth is promising. "I always said that these are under-17 level stadiums but not an under-20 World Cup level stadium. But the improvement they made over the past three years is commendable. And at this rate, I think India can reach that level soon infrastructure-wise. This country should be proud of what they have achieved," he explained.
Yarza also informed that all the travelling teams showed happiness with the facilities provided to them at all the venues.
The FIFA head of committee also informed that the attendance at this World Cup has come close to best attendance at any under-17 World Cup and are close to breaking the under-19 World cup record.
"More than 1.2 million people fans came to watch the matches at the stadium during the 50 completed matches and with few more numbers in the Final, it will be the highest ever at any under-17 World Cup and might even breach the under-19 World Cup record. This only shows that India is a footballing nation."