Women's football action in India is all set to get underway at the national level as the Indian Women's League (IWL) is set to start. The 2020-21 edition will take place in Odisha. Indian women's national team head coach Maymol Rocky expressed her delight that the league is being orgsed despite the operational challenges thrown by the COVID pandemic.
After the successful orgsation of the ISL, I-League, and the I-League Qualifiers in Goa and Kolkata, it is now Odisha's turn to play host to domestic footballing action.
"I was thrilled to hear that we will have the IWL this season, despite the ongoing pandemic. It is great to see that the federation has taken the steps to arrange the league in a manner that is safe for the players and officials who will be involved in it," the official website of All India Football Federation quoted Maymol as saying.
While things happening in and around the beautiful game may be a little different this time, the focus for Maymol remains the same -- scouting new talent from the league.
"Many top players have come out of the IWL in the past few years, and I intend to make sure that the trend continues this time as well. I am looking forward to watching all the matches, and finding new players for the senior national team," she said.
The Indian women's team has been in camp in Goa since December and has also travelled to Turkey to play three matches -- all under the stringent COVID-safety protocols.
"We had a lot of safety protocols in place during our camp in Goa, and it was extremely hard to implement them and even harder to follow them ourselves. Having done that, I can now appreciate the difficulty in implementing the same for all the teams competing in the league. I really must thank the Odisha Government for stepping up to support Women's Football at a time like this," she stated.
( With inputs from ANI )
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