AIFF Media Team

NEW DELHI: Women’s football action in India is all set to get underway on the national level as we get set for the Hero Indian Women’s League, the 2020-21 edition of which will take place in Odisha. Indian Women’s National Team head coach Maymol Rocky expressed her delight that the league is being organised despite the operational challenges thrown by the COVID Pandemic.

After the successful organization of the Hero ISL, the Hero I-League, and the Hero I-League Qualifiers in Goa and Kolkata, it is now Odisha’s turn to play host to domestic footballing action.

“I was thrilled to hear that we will have the Hero IWL his season, despite the ongoing pandemic. It is great to see that the Federation has taken the steps to arrange the league in a manner that is safe for the players and officials who will be involved in it,” the India head coach said to the-aiff.com.

While things happening in and around the beautiful game may be a little different this time, the focus for Maymol Rocky remains the same – scouting new talents from the league.

“Many top players have come out of the Hero IWL in the past few years, and I intend to make sure that that trend continues this time as well. I am looking forward to watching all the matches, and finding new players for the Senior National Team,” she quipped.

The Indian Women’s Team has been in camp in Goa since December and has also travelled to Turkey to play three matches – all under the stringent COVID-safety protocols. Maymol expressed her amazement at the fact that such widespread protocols will now become a regular feature in the women’s domestic circuit as well.

“We had a lot of safety protocols in place during our camp in Goa, and it was extremely hard to implement them and even harder to follow them ourselves."

"Having done that, I can now appreciate the difficulty in implementing the same for all the teams competing in the league,” she stated. “I really must thank the Odisha Government for stepping up to support Women’s Football at a time like this.”