AIFF senior vice-president with Olivier Bierhoff in Dusseldorf

CHENNAI: The All India Football Federation (AIFF)'s national training centre of excellence is already in the pipeline and the federation is in dialogue with Germany Football Association (DFB) for assistance in setting up its dream project. It was learnt that AIFF senior vice-president Subrata Dutta met former Germany captain and project head of DFB national academy Oliver Bierhoff and DFB general secretary Friedrich Curtius among others on the sidelines of SPOBIS - Europe's sports business meet - last month in Dusseldorf to discuss the possibility of using DFB's knowledge in building the training centre.

"The training centre will be the home of the Indian national team, junior and women's teams. We will provide the players everything - from physical training to swimming pools to classrooms to mental conditioning. Germany, too, is building such an academy in Frankfurt and Bierhoff is in charge of the project. So the idea behind the meeting was to discuss how to conceptualise and go about building the centre. We want to exchange ideas and know-how," Dutta told TOI on Sunday.

The training centre will be built on the outskirts of Kolkata after the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee promised 10 acres of land. Dutta, who shared his views on the current state of Indian football at SPOBIS, said that the discussion with Bierhoff was fruitful. "Bierhoff was open to welcome an AIFF delegation to Frankfurt to show his plans and ideas. They also wanted to help with DFB's medical and science lab," Dutta said.

