The Indian football team members, who arrive here tomorrow from Pakistan with the SAFF Cup, will be richer by Rs. 1,20,000 each. The decision to reward the team was taken at the Annual General Meeting held at Football House, the new AIFF head quarters.The team had won $ 50,000 and the individuals will get Rs. 50,000 each from it besides Rs. 20,000 from AIFF and another Rs. 50,000 each contributed by an unknown businessman from Kolkata.There is reason for much cheer for the country’s footballers as the AIFF unveiled plans to add two more tournaments to the calendar, setting up a corpus fund(Rs. 1 crore) for ailing footballers besides introducing a ranking system for the players.The federatiaon will conduct the President’s Cup tournament from 2006 in which eight teams will participate and they will be those who have narrowly missed out making it to competitions like the NFL, Durand and the federation Cup tourneys. There will also be a third division League from 2006 and the criterion for qualification would be decided by the league committee at a later date.Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, the AIFF chief, emerging from the AGM also said that Goa was the indisputable champions in the Santosh Trophy. ‘‘There is no question of revoking the decision,’’ he said. Similarly, he said, no action will be taken against Manipur players who protested against the penalty kick during their match against Goa.
