In Doha for the Asian Cup, he said the major difference between the two emerging global superpowers was infrastructure when asked why India was lagging so far behind its neighbour in the world rankings.

"China has wonderful facilities. In Shanghai where I stayed most of the time, the facilities there alone were more than in all of India put together," said the 61-year-old, who took charge in 2006.

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"In India we do not have one decent training ground, we only have one stadium in the whole of the country that meets the criteria to hold a World Cup qualifier, and that is an athletics stadium in Chennai.

"If you don't have the infrastructure and the development programmes then you can't make that step forward, so there is no comparison between India and China.

"But I'd say to India that this is what we can achieve if we set out our goals properly.

"This tournament is a step up for us, but if India wants to improve then it needs to do something about the domestic football programme, its infrastructure, its coach training programmes and so on.

"Because that is all crucial to the game."

India are in Qatar courtesy of winning the eight-nation AFC Challenge Cup as hosts in 2008 -- a tournament of lower-tier Asian teams.

It is their first outing at the Asian Cup since 1984, where they failed to make any impact, in contrast to their maiden appearance in 1964 when they finished runners-up.

They were forced to prepare in Portugal and Dubai because the facilities in India were so poor, Houghton said.

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