The All India Football Federation held its Emergency Committee meeting here in Kolkata on Sunday the 29th of November 2009. In a big announcement, Mr Praful Patel officially declared that Mr.Sunando Dhar has been appointed as the new CEO of the I-League and he will join from the month of January.
Apart from that Mr Patel also formed a new I-League Development committee to improve the standard of country’s premier football event. Mr Alberto Colaco will be the Chairman and will be assisted by IFA (WB) General Secretary Mr Utpal Ganguly as the Deputy Chairman.
Speaking about his appointment Mr Ganguly said, “I am really honoured to be given a chance to work at an All India level. I will try my best to perform my duties as assigned.”
It was also learnt that Mr Alberto Colaco has recently attended a Conference of AFC in Kuala Lumpur where AFC has created a special 10 Nation Ad-hoc Committee to implement special development program and India is one of the 10 members in that committee. AFC has also selected India to implement the system of Online Players Transfers system which is very prevalent in the European region.
Speaking to Goal.com AIFF Vice President Mr Subrata Dutta said, "AFC has chosen India to implement the Online Transfer system. We have already responded positively and we are willing to start off the project from the 2010 -2011 season itself.”
AIFF President Mr Praful Patel presided over the meeting attended by the General Secretary and other important Office bearers of the All India Football Federation. As Mr.Praful Patel visited Kolkata for the first time after being appointed as the President of AIFF, he invited over the Club officials of the two Kolkata giants namely East Bengal and Mohun Bagan.
During the meeting both the Kolkata Clubs pointed out that it is becoming extremely difficult for the clubs to maintain two sets of team as the clubs are not informed in advance about the release of players for National camps.
East Bengal Official Mr.Kalyan Majumdar proposed that the AIFF should take over the expenses of the Footballers playing in National team and also they should be informed about the players to be released well in advance. The AIFF President declared in the meeting that a list of players for the next national camp will be released in January and the clubs will have to release them in June 2010 as a part of GOAL 2011 Project for the Asia Cup.
Mohun Bagan official Mr Anjan Mitra expressed that there is a wrong conception in the mind of national Coach Mr Bob Houghton about football in Bengal. To get away with that misunderstanding Mr Mitra proposed the AIFF to have a National Camp in Kolkata and also invited Mr Houghton to have a look at the facilities in Kolkata clubs like Mohun Bagan and East Bengal.
AIFF also announced that it will host its U-19 National Team camp under Mr Colin Toal in Kalyani, West Bengal in the month of January for preparations of the SAFF Games. Meanwhile the Indian Women’s team will have its camp in Goa where a Coach from United States will be coaching the team. AIFF is also planning to have 4 training centers of its own in various cities by 2012.
More: Profile on Sunando Dhar
Source: Goal.com
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Tuesday 1 December 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.