‘Simple’ is a word that crops up quite a few times when talking football with Bibiano Fernandes, head coach of the Indian men’s U17 football team. But what he will try to do over the next week or so can be called anything but simple. He takes his wards to the AFC U17 Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia, with India facing Australia in their first game on May 6, followed by Uzbekistan on May 10.
The Indians were originally scheduled to face North Korea on May 13 before they pulled out of the tournament due to the conflict in West Asia.
With the top two teams in each group sealing an automatic berth in the FIFA U17 World Cup in Qatar in November, the stakes are high, and one positive result can go a long way towards that destination. Fernandes says that his players are well aware of the situation but he has asked them to focus on the basics.
𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗺.. 🇮🇳🌪️#AFCU17 in Jeddah awaits 🇸🇦🏜️#AsiaDream #BlueColts #IndianFootball pic.twitter.com/RnDUahmv0O
— Indian Football (@IndianFootball) April 30, 2026
“There is a ball, there is an opponent, there is a goal. Football is very simple. What you do is you attack, you defend, you transition. That’s all. Rest everything is over-complicating things. So get better at attacking, defending and transitioning. Simple,” Fernandes tells The Indian Express.
Fernandes is with his players and coaching staff in Qatar, where they faced the Qatar U17 team in two friendlies on April 25 and 28. Both matches ended in draws – 1-1 and 0-0 respectively – and the team will now travel to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, where they will play their group stage matches.
India made it to the tournament as winners of their qualifying group which included Lebanon, Palestine – both far above India in the senior rankings – and most notably, Iran – who are so far above India on the rankings that they might as well be sitting in a different tier. But that didn’t prevent the Indians from sealing qualification with a come-from-behind win over Iran themselves. It is this victory that makes qualification for the U17 World Cup more than a distant possibility.
That victory also maintained Fernandes’s 100 percent record with regards to qualification for the Asian Cup. Since he took over for the first time in 2017, the only occasion when India failed to qualify for the U17 Asian Cup was when he had stepped away and worked with Bengaluru FC as a reserves coach.
Secret recipe
Consistency with regards to qualification for big tournaments is rare in Indian football, so what is his secret?
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“I heard someone comment once, ‘He must’ve got some formula’ (laughs). There is no formula there.”
Well, the answer is disarmingly… “simple”.
Fernandes says that the courses he undertook for acquiring his coaching licences early on, and those that he still does, have helped him understand the sport.
“It’s very simple for a coach when you know what football is, because then you can teach it. Understanding this has changed me as a coach completely. I’m not the same coach that I was with the 2018 batch,” he said.
That batch had reached the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup, then called the AFC U16 Championship. One more win and they would’ve qualified for the 2019 FIFA U17 World Cup in Brazil. This time, the route to the marquee tournament is arguably easier by design, and made even more straightforward by the withdrawal of North Korea.
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Fernandes is pretty happy with how the team has progressed in the friendly matches during the intervening period. Among the teams that India faced were South Korea, UAE and Turkiye. There were a couple of heavy defeats – to UAE and Turkiye – but for Fernandes, the important thing was how the team improved in staying calm on the ball while playing superior sides, something he admitted they needed to work on after sealing qualification to the Asian Cup.
“We have created very good scoring chances against all these teams. That also gives us confidence that we are capable of creating chances, just a matter of getting that goal. Putting in a performance like the one against Iran can change everything for us,” he said.
Australia may be a daunting challenge but Fernandes is adamant that his wards are not preparing for the match with just defence on their minds.
“We are not going to back out from 50-50 challenges. The boys know that we have to go at them. We have a good team, there are a few players who can play at the highest level already,” he claimed.
