Indian U-16 football team embarks on UAE exposure tour

New Delhi [India], Jan 7 (ANI): Indian U-16 Boys national football team is all set to embark upon an exposure tour in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where they are set to play friendly matches against national teams and local clubs.
The tour includes a Tri-Nation tournament with the likes of UAE and Saudi Arabia. Following this, they are also set to face-off against the youth teams of a number of local clubs in and around Dubai.
Head coach Shuvendu Panda said that such exposure tours help develop young players and give the boys a lot of experience.
"These kinds of exposure tours are always helpful for the kids. Getting to play against the best players from other countries would give these boys a lot of experience," Panda said.
All India Football Federation (AIFF) director of national teams and former Indian national team captain Abhishek Yadav highlighted the work put into scouting the young talents from various youth leagues, ahead of this exposure tour.
"The team has players from various states spotted through trials over the last few months as well as from AIFF youth leagues and national football championships," Yadav said.
"The team remains in a formative stage as our trials on ongoing. It is greatly beneficial as we are giving players the opportunity to play against foreign opposition overseas from this stage itself," he added.
India will play their first match of the Tri-Nation tournament against UAE on January 8 followed by a clash against South Arabia on January 8 and a friendly match against UAE on January 15. (ANI)