Friday , March 29 2024

India U-17 beat an Italian U-17 side, but not the Italy U-17s!

On Friday, May 19 afternoon, the Indian Under-17 national team played a friendly against an Italian Under-17 national team in Arizo, Italy, but after the hype of the Indian win over the Azzurri, news trickled out that the team India faced was not the full Italy U-17 national team but a select side of the Italian Lega Pro (Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico), which is the third tier of Italian football.

It was first reported by the Hindustan Times yesterday that the team India faced was not the youth team of the Azzurri, which interestingly had not been reported about by the Italian football federation – FIGC (Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio).

Thereafter reports from Lega Pro came out about the match, the Italian federation unaware of any match against their junior side, but the Lega Pro being part of the FIGC wore Italia kit made by PUMA.

This mistake of reporting by the AIFF is unacceptable as the hype around the win was build on a massive gaffe and should be avoided in the future, but on the other end it still is a big morale boasting win over an Italian select side of players from clubs playing professional Italian club football in the third and fourth tier.

Otherwise such a good win would be seen in the wrong frame by the fans…

About Arunava Chaudhuri

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