Indian Super League: Delhi Dynamos combat air pollution with protective masks

As professionals you need to adjust to such things, says Delhi Dynamos’ Spanish defender Eduardo Moya on the hazardous levels of air pollution in New Delhi

Be it the FIFA U-17 World Cup or the Indian Super League (ISL), the Delhi air continues to be part of the conversation on football at this time of the year.

Some of the Delhi Dynamos players have been wearing masks during training to protect themselves from the hazardous levels of air pollution in the city. (Twitter/Delhi Dynamos)

The World Cup scheduled no matches after Diwali in New Delhi but the ISL can’t afford such luxury in a competition that runs for four months beginning on November 17.

So, Delhi Dynamos’ players have been given protective masks with which goalie Albino Gomes said they have trained. “Things are better now,” said Gomes, speaking at the ISL’s media day here on Sunday.

Gomes won the I-League with Aizawl FC, a city almost in the clouds, and said in jest that playing in fog shouldn’t be too much of a problem. What could be though is the lack of fans’ support. “At Aizawl, that was a big thing for us,” he said.

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Speaking on the same subject, Dynamos’ Spanish defender Eduardo Moya, 36, though said the adjustment is all in the mind. “It’s all about having a good mentality. I know the weather conditions would be different in, say, Delhi and Kochi but why should that affect the standard of football? As a player, you need to adapt to these things and that includes the pollution in Delhi,” he said.

“I trained in Norway without additional protection when the temperature was minus 11 degrees (Centigrade). People would be surprised but it is not a problem if you have a positive frame of mind,” said Moya who played for FC Fyllingsdalen in Bergen, Norway, in 2012-13.