NEW DELHI: Maymol Rocky, the Indian women's football team head coach, believes hosting the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Asian Cup in 2022 will help a lot of female footballers and coaches in the country.
The 41-year-old tactician also thinks that watching the continental tournament on home soil will raise the involvement of women in Indian football. "Hosting the AFC Women's Asian Cup will inspire a lot of girls to take part in this sport," Olympics.com quoted Maymol Rocky in a video series posted by the AFC.
"I am confident that there will be more female staff members in women's teams and regional football federations and their inspiring stories will definitely attract more women and girls to join this beautiful game and to consider football as their future career."
In 2017, the former right-back became the first female head coach of the women's national side. "Leading the women's national team has always been my dream. And I believe that this is the highest position everyone desires. I was surprised to achieve this accomplishment, but I was also proud of myself," Maymol stated.
Earlier this month, Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the AFC Women's Asian Cup India 2022 Local Organising Committee (LOC) confirmed the Mumbai Football Arena -- Andheri Sports Complex, and the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi, Pune as the new venues and host cities for the continent's premier women's national team competition.
The decision was confirmed taking into careful consideration the existing challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and as part of efforts to minimise the travelling time for teams and officials between the venues, whilst ensuring the optimum environment to implement the biomedical bubble for the benefit of all stakeholders.
The Indian Women's team currently placed 57th in the FIFA rankings was last seen in action in April. The team played two friendlies against Uzbekistan and Belarus.