AIFF now turns attention to women

After focussing on the development of the men8217;s team and the juniors, the All India Football Federation seems to have shifted its attention to women8217;s football.

After focussing on the development of the men8217;s team and the juniors, the All India Football Federation AIFF seems to have shifted its attention to women8217;s football. AIFF president Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, after the AGM here today, declared that an under-21 zonal tournament for the women will kick off next year.

The state teams of all four regions will compete against each other in their respective zones for a Zone Cup before finally battling it out for the national title8212;the Rani Jhansi Cup.

Though AIFF is yet to finalise the date and venue for the kick-off of the tournament8212;it will do so next month8212; Dasmunsi said the tournament was a long-term plan and most of the participants would be the students.

AIFF is also planning to start an open state league for women. The Metro Cup, as it will be called, will see its kick-off in Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata in 2008 though the affiliates have also been requested to start the league in Bangalore, Bhubaneswar and Lucknow.

With the new year round the corner, good news is in store for the men as well. They are just a step away from making it to the main round of the 2011 Asian Cup to be held in Qatar. Originally slated to play the first round of qualifiers, they will now be seen in action in the second round of the competition. India, seeded 22nd in the qualifiers, were to take on one of the teams seeded between 20th and 27th but the Asian Football Confederation AFC has elevated India after their Nehru Cup victory.

8220;AFC has slotted India directly in the second round and we won8217;t have to play the preliminary round fixtures,8221; Dasmunsi said, adding that India will also have more than one shot at the qualifiers for the 2011 event as the country would be hosting the AFC Challenge Cup in 2008 and 2010. All they need is to win either of these tournaments for a direct entry into the Asian Cup.

The venue will be decided only after an AFC team inspectes the stadiums in Hyderabad and Delhi, the two likely centres that will host the two editions.

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8220;Hyderabad and Delhi have been provisionally put on the map as possible venues and an AFC inspection team will visit both the centres next month to decide on one of them,8221; AIFF secretary-general Alberto Colaco said.

Since the 2008 edition of the tournament, meant for second-rung Asian teams, has been pushed to August from March, a change in the schedule of the domestic I-League has also taken place.

8220;Previously there was a break in the I-League before the last two rounds but now the break has been done away with and the league will conclude on February 22 or 23, followed by the Super Cup,8221; Colaco said.

Also, the focus on the youth development programme has been done, according to him, as AIFF will be signing an MoU on January 4 with the Goa Football Association for starting an academy there.

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Another football academy will be coming up in Gurgaon in collaboration with ONGC.

For his effort in the Nehru Cup and in the World Cup qualifiers against Lebanon, Sunil Chettri was named the AIFF player of the year.

Other decisions

8226; A core group to look into the reservations of state associations8217; Bengal and Goa proposal to bar national players from local leagues. The core group, comprising technical committee chief C R Visswanathan as its convenor, to meet on January 27-28 and submit its report to Dasmunsi by January 31

8226; Dasmunsi to egg on global steel magnate L N Mittal to help the development of the sport

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8226; To mark its 70th anniversary, AIFF will honour Sailen Manna, PK Banerjee, Chuni Goswami, Syed Nayeemuddin and Santosh Mohan Deb former FIFA referee with lifetime membership