Sunil Chhetri has been declared the 2017 Player of the Year by the All India Football Federation (AIFF).
Chhetri was the undisputed winner for his domestic and international performances and excellent conduct on and off the field. The Woman Player of the Year award was given to Kamala Devi.
The AIFF Executive Committee meeting, held in Mumbai on Sunday, also condemned Indian Olympic Committee’s decision to not send football teams for participating in the forthcoming Asian Games scheduled to be held in Jakarta.
The IOA had stuck to the government guidelines which stated that the team ought to have had a below eight position finish in the previous Games to gain clearance.
The AIFF had vainly appealed to the IOA which did not budge from its stand.
Kamala Devi
Apart from unanimously ratifying the 2018-19 Club licensing regulations, the meeting also decided to adopt the TW3 test, which has been accepted by the Supreme Court as an age verification test as well used extensively used by the BCCI.
The costs for the tests would be borne by the respective clubs and state associations.
Abiding by FIFA regulations, the Committee ratified the use of five substitutions in age-group competitions along with an extra substitute if the match is stretched to extra-time.
The Committee also recommended a standard draft agreement be circulated to the Clubs that will include all clauses which need to be included as per FIFA regulations.
However, the committee observed, Clubs would be allowed to use certain variable clauses as an annexure to be implemented from the 2019-20 season.
The Committee was apprised of the AIFF’s Centre of Excellence coming up in Kolkata.
Based on AIFF’s two-member Committee’ of Subrata Dutta and Col. BMR Mehta decided to grant provisional affiliation to Dadra and Nagra Naveli which would later need approval of by AIFF’s General Body.
The full list of the 2017 Awards :
Best Grassroots Development Programme: Kerala FA.
Long-time contribution to Indian Football: Hero Motocorp. Best Assistant Referee: Sumanta Datta.
Best Referee: CR Srikrishna.
Emerging Woman Footballer of the Year: E Panthoi.
Emerging Player of the Year: Anirudh Thapa.
Woman Footballer of the Year: Kamala Devi.
Player of the Year: Sunil Chhetri.
