New Delhi, July 10 - All India Football Federation's (AIFF) first professional secretary Alberto Colaco has a major disappointment as he prepares to step down after eight years -- not seeing India break into the top 100 in the international football federation (FIFA) rankings.

Colaco, whose tenure ends after the Nehru Cup in August, told IANS that his desire to see India in FIFA's double-digit ranking and among Asia's top dozen countries remains unfulfilled.

'One big reason for India's tardy progress is that they could not compete internationally as much as a good team should do and the lack of match-play is the key reason for their sliding to 147th place in the FIFA rankings.'

Colaco said monetary constraints and insufficient preparation time came in the way of preparing the national team regularly and efficiently for international matches.

'Playing friendlies regularly would have easily brought us into the top 100, but we needed Rs.4 million to play a match. And then we just could not keep the team together for long for preparation,' said Colaco.

Colaco says he does not want his work to be judged by India's recent success in the AFC Challenge Cup or in the Nehru Cup but wants to be remembered for the way he has streamlined country's football administration.

'With modesty I can claim that I have set some standards for my successors, but it is not for me to sign my progress card, it is for others to do it.'

Colaco is sore that AIFF has constantly been projected in a poor light, picking on the under-16 age scandal, the dropping of the women's team from FIFA rankings and for the delay in the setting up of the Bharati Academy.

'I don't want to make light of these things, but then Indian football should not be crucified for this. We have been able to address the age problem by carefully tallying birth certificates with hospital records. We are working in tandem with the Asian Football Confederations (AFC) to eradicate this menace which is ruining Indian football at the grassroots level.

'As for the women's team, I accept that we should have played some tournaments in the last 18 months but there were hardly any in the region. And the results of the Asian qualifiers were not satisfying either. So, the executive committee decided that the focus should be on a developmental programme to build a strong national team,' he said.