AFC moots big lift for Indian football

In a ground-breaking move that promises to unleash the potential of Indian football, Indian League clubs will receive artificial turfs to boost their infrastructural facilities.

This decision was taken at a special one-day AFC-sponsored workshop for Indian clubs here at AFC House on Friday.

The pitches are being offered to those clubs who have grounds of their own or on long-term leases from their respective state governments, under FIFA’s ‘Win in India, with India’ initiative, which was launched by FIFA President Sepp Blatter in 2007.

A decision to set up a committee, headed by AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam, to steer Indian football into a new era of professionalism was also taken during the workshop.

In attendance were key officials of several Indian League clubs while the AIFF was led by its President Praful Patel and General Secretary Alberto Colaco.

Before the discussions kicked off, Bin Hammam underlined the pivotal place of Indian football, saying development of the sport in India was vital for the progress of football as a whole in Asia.

“India should be in line with other developing Asian countries and as the governing body of football in Asia, it will be our biggest achievement if Indian football takes off.”

Bin Hammam also called for radical and urgent structural changes to bring Indian football on par with the best in the continent.

“The main obstacle in the development of Indian football is an unusual mixing between national and state football,” said Bin Hammam.

“The AIFF should separate these two as a first step. The clubs playing in the Indian League should be separate and should not play in the state leagues.”

The AFC President strongly raised the issue of revenue sharing with the 14 I-League teams.

“The money generated by Indian clubs does not cover their expenses and I would like to suggest that the AIFF give the revenue generated by the I-League to the clubs for a few years so that they can re-invest in football and development of infrastructure.”

“There is also a need to start second and third division leagues and the clubs should start looking at sources of revenue generation,” he added.

AIFF President Praful Patel said the time for Indian football has come and bold decisions were needed to take Indian football to the next level.

“It is an opportunity for the Indian clubs to have first hand knowledge of AFC and FIFA’s thinking about Indian football. It’s our responsibility and we should put our best foot forward to develop the game in India,” he said.

“Some of the suggestions will not be easy to implement but we will have to take bold decisions to take Indian football to the next level.”

Mr. Liaquat Ali of Viva Kerala also attended the meeting.

Source: AFC

From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Friday 19 February 2010, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.