With preparations for the upcoming Under-17 FIFA World Cup in its final stages, the All India Football Federation’s next target is the Under-20 World Cup with president Praful Patel declaring the country was ready for it.
“The Under-20 World Cup is our next mission. We have already spoken to FIFA and told them that we are interested. The AIFF is ready to host it next year itself if possible but it isn’t that simple. We have to see how to go about it and how, when we get it is something we cannot decide,” Patel told The Hindu following the AIFF Executive Committee meeting here on Thursday.
Motivating youngsters
Asked about how he fancied India’s chances at the U-17 World Cup — the first ever FIFA event in the country — Patel admitted that while performance was important, the key objective for the federation was to get Indian youngsters motivated to take up football.
“It’s a big moment for us and we should not miss it. We know that, eventually, Indian football’s future lies in this youth group, not the present lot. The current team is playing well and good for them but if you want to see India at the next level in Asia and the world, you have to see the next generation of youth,” he said.
He, however, refused to comment on the long-drawn issue of merging the I-League and the ISL, saying nothing had been finalised yet while insisting that the I-League would continue to exist regardless of the proposed restructuring of domestic football.
Meanwhile, former India striker Shyam Thapa replaced Bhaichung Bhutia as chairman of the AIFF technical committee even as several of the other sub-committees of the federation were revamped at the executive committee meeting.
The EC also included former players Abhishek Yadav and Ishfaq Ahmed as members of the technical committee, taking the number of footballers in the body to five including Pradip Dutta, Prosanto Banerjee and Henry Menezes, who has been named its new vice-chairman.
Bhutia’s deputy Savio Messias has been been omitted but the Goan is now part of the Ethics Committee of the AIFF. Yadav, incidentally, is also the AIFF’s talent scouting director and also the chief operating officer for the Indian Under-17 team.
Thapa was last part of the AIFF as coach of the Indian under-16 and under-19 teams in the late 1980s.
Ahmed, who is part of the Kerala Blasters team in the ISL, would have to quit that role.
Benevolent fund
The committee also decided to set up a Players’ Benevolent Fund with Patel contributing $200,000 for the same. The amount is part of the TA/DA allowances provided to be part of the AFC meetings which Patel apparently never claimed. An amount of $100,000 would also be given to the AFC Social Development Reform Programme.
The EC also approved the next three-year calendar including the Federation Cup in Cuttack (May 7-21) with the season’s top eight I-League teams participating.
The AIFF also decided to implement a ranking system for the State associations.
