The TLO: Just another group player

• Team Liaison Officers (TLOs) are a couple between teams and organisers
• Mohsin Kahn, Jitendra Kumar, and Ritesh Patnaik are TLOs during India 2017
• All 3 have garnered a new turn of seductiveness for football

Arriving in a unknown nation thousands of miles from home can be a severe believe for even a many seasoned traveller. While for those who do not pronounce a internal denunciation and are unknown with a culture, a transition can be harder still. Spare a thought, then, for a 23 immature members of any of a 24 squads contesting a FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017, a many critical foe of their burgeoning careers.

To safeguard that a teams can concentration wholly on what they have to do on a representation yet carrying to worry about denunciation and organisational issues, a India 2017 Local Organising Committee (LOC) has done a Team Liaison Officer (TLO) accessible to any of them, as is a box during each FIFA tournament.

TLO basics: 
– These volunteers are a couple between their teams and a organisers, and a internal race as well. 
– They contingency have a authority of their team’s language, a denunciation of a horde nation and English.

All a TLOs during India 2017 have glorious denunciation skills, yet what of their believe of football? FIFA.com asked some of them about their attribute with a diversion in a nation where cricket dominates a sporting scene.

“I wasn’t meddlesome in football during all before this World Cup. All we knew was that it was a competition with billions of fans,” pronounced New Caledonia’s TLO Mohsin Kahn, whose attribute with a diversion was probably non-existent. “My ex-girlfriend was a Cristiano Ronaldo fan, and one day she bought me his shirt, with a No7 on it. That’s when we started to support Portugal, yet I’ve always elite cricket.”

Jitendra Kumar, who has been concomitant Honduras in India, has a identical story to tell. “I didn’t have any tie to football during all. I’m a cricket fan,” he said. “But I’d listened of FIFA and we didn’t demur for a second when we got a possibility to take partial in this World Cup.”

Unlike students Kahn and Kumar, 40-year-old Ritesh Patnaik has a lot of life believe to call on and has spent a lot of time in France, England and Canada. “In India, we don’t get that many chances to play football, yet we did play a bit during school,” he said, before explaining that Lothar Matthaus, Roberto Donadoni, Paolo Maldini, Romario and Bebeto are only some of a players to have done an sense on him over a years: “I watch Brazil, Germany and Italy some-more than any other teams when a World Cup is on. we unequivocally started holding an seductiveness in a competition in France, and we used to go and watch Nantes play. And when we went to England, we went to even some-more games.”

After their practice during India 2017, however, they all have one thing in common: football is now partial of their lives. “You learn so many things doing this job,” pronounced Patnaik. “When we watch on TV, there are utterly a few things we don’t unequivocally understand. What is a manager cheering from a dugout? What’s a arbitrate observant to a players and in what language? we asked a players to tell me what goes on in those situations. You unequivocally get a feel for what life’s like in a football team.”

“The some-more matches we watch, a some-more sparkling we find a sport. And I’ve schooled a manners small by little, like penalties and corners,” explained Khan, who has had a close-up perspective of New Caledonia’s initial tour on a tellurian stage. “I can now know matches from a technical viewpoint,” combined Kumar. “I can see what’s not operative and what a team’s lacking.”

Do any of a 3 TLOs feel they have been welcomed into a teams they have been reserved to? “They told me I’m unequivocally most partial of it,” answered Patnaik, while Kumar pronounced he appreciated being treated as if he were “just another member of a family”. As for Khan, he was so in balance with New Caledonia that he felt their pain whenever they conceded a goal: “I was sitting with a group in a technical area for their final compare opposite Japan and we jumped adult and shouted when we scored. Two of a volunteers gave me a dismayed look.”

“If they turn champions of a world, afterwards that means we do too,” said Patnaik before Les Bleuets’ went out in a final 16. “I’ve schooled a lot about football by a players and a coach,” combined Kumar, who, interjection to India 2017, has set himself a small challenge: “I’m going to go divided and learn all about football now.”

Special memories: 
- Mohsin Kahn (New Caledonia): “The coach, Dominique Wacalie, gave me his boots and asked me to sight with them, so that we can play together when we go and revisit him.”
- Ritesh Patnaik (France): “They take their training sessions unequivocally seriously, yet when they’re over, we have a kick-about and do some keepie-uppies with them.”
– Jitendra Kumar (Honduras): “I’d never have had another event to learn so many things about Honduras. The manager comes from a unequivocally medium credentials and so do I. We’ve had a lot of chats together.”

Article source: http://www.fifa.com/u17worldcup/news/y=2017/m=10/news=the-tlo-just-another-team-player-2915993.html