FIFA president Gianni Infantino might travel to India and call upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the way forward for Indian Football.
The development was revealed during the AIFF executive committee meeting that was held here today and world body’s top boss’ proposed visit to India would coincide with the business end of FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup that is scheduled to take place in India from October 11-30.
“At the start of the meeting, the members were informed that the FIFA President Mr Gianni Infantino may travel to India in the last week of October, to call upon Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to discuss the way forward for Indian Football,” an AIFF release stated.
The committee during the meeting also recommended that Arun Ghosh, Shabbir Ali and IM Vijayan be nominated for the Padma Shri award while Manoranjan Bhattacharya for the Major Dhyan Chand Award and Jeje Lalpekhlua for the Arjuna Award.
Also during the meeting, the executive committee endorsed the technical committee’s recommendation to extend senior men’s team head Coach Igor Stimac’s contract till the end of the AFC Asian Cup 2023.
The technical committee’s views to use Indian coaches in all age groups, to discontinue the Indian Arrows project and replace it with the Elite Youth League and to appoint more female coaches for the Women’s National Teams, were also recognised during the meeting.
Meanwhile, the AIFF President opened the proceedings by informing the committee about his development talks with the Government and the Qatar Football Association.
“The Government is going to lend large scale support to help popularise football. We have plans to have U-17 Women’s Football events across 30 cities, where young girls can play and learn about the sport. It is our hope that such initiatives will further help inspire more young kids to take up the beautiful game,” newly elected AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey said.
“We have also had fruitful talks with the Qatar Football Association, and they are going to help us in various areas with respect to the development of football in India,” the president added. The meeting which was the second meeting done by the new executive committee of the AIFF was chaired by Chaubey and attended by other members of the new AIFF body.