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An Indian football grassroots programme with FIFA chief of Global Football development head Arsene Wenger’s fingerprints on it, a complete structural overhaul of the game in the country with a view to becoming a Top 10 Asian Men’s and Top 8 Asian Women’s team and a 500% increase in revenue by 2026 – the All India Football Federation (AIFF) presented its ‘Vision 2047’ roadmap on Saturday in New Delhi.
The plan consisted of short-term (2026), mid-term (2036) and long-term (2047) goals all divided into six, four-year plans with the first of them coming up in 2026.
AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey said they have had talks with FIFA’s developmental team and that coaches from Wenger’s team would be visiting India to work on a national grassroots programme as soon as next month. Stressing the need for a larger talent pool and how the Indian national men’s team is largely left to fend for itself with the sheer lack of numbers, general secretary Shaji Prabhakaran added that staff had already been assigned by Wenger and that FIFA would play a part in the process of creating a grassroots programme in India.
The change in stance from previous iterations of the AIFF by Chaubey and Prabhakaran has been on the cards and became apparent when India opted out of the bidding process of the 2027 AFC Asian Cup. This is no longer an AIFF that wants to hold international events in India, but rather one that wishes to qualify for high-profile youth football events on merit – by 2026 at that.
The change in policy is an admission of failure that hosting two U17 World Cups in the country didn’t yield the type of tectonic change in Indian football that was once believed possible.
A national playing philosophy
Chief among all the changes proposed by the AIFF was to come up with an idea of what Indian football teams across all age groups should look like. A national playing philosophy would, according to the AIFF, be the bedrock of how coaching is conducted – even at the youngest of age groups, how players will be selected and trained and how coaching manuals will insist on a bottom-to-top approach based on this philosophy.
It would be the diktat that everyone from a district-level team coach to the national team boss would follow and define Indian football not just to itself but internationally as well. Prabhakaran stressed the philosophy would be suited to India and would be driven by a scientific, data-collected approach. “Everybody has the destination – when we should be at the World Cup. But we want to build this philosophy that takes us to that destination,” remarked Prabhakaran.
Women’s football on par with men’s
Equal opportunity for the women’s game to grow is one of AIFF’s key areas in the roadmap. “Be it competitions or any development initiatives, the women’s game will get equal treatment. We will be coming up with a minimum wage for women footballers,” announced Prabhakaran.
He also said that the AIFF would be creating a separate department for the women’s game and that the league structure would be built in such a way that the women’s tier will be four levels with the Indian Women’s League having 10 teams and the second division consisting of 8 teams by 2026.
Support to the State Associations
Perhaps the one factor on which the entirety of this roadmap hinges is the development of state associations to become smaller units built in the image of the mothership that is the AIFF. Saying that the last 75 years have seen the State Associations being neglected, the aim of the AIFF was to build capacity within these organisations and a major part of the roadmap is to ‘handhold’ these organisations.
Prabhakaran spoke of the need to raise the capacity of these organisations and that the right financial support and motivation needed to be provided to them. He also added that the AIFF will look to create a ‘robust evaluation method’ that would judge the performances of these State FAs once that support was provided.
Hopes of commercial success
Many of the roadmap’s plans hinge on the organisation’s marketing partners and how that equation plays out when the agreement between AIFF and Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) comes to an end. The AIFF revealed that 61% of its current revenue comes from its marketing partners and that the total revenue is around Rs 80 cr.
By 2026, the organisation targets an increase of 500% in its revenue. In its roadmap, it looks to build its brand, creating a new ‘Business and marketing’ team within the organisation and enhancing the value of existing properties.
This goal is heavily dependent on their marketing partners and how much real estate this version of the AIFF is willing to concede and at what cost. The biggest hurdle to the AIFF’s short-term plans lies in their commercial hopes, as well as the performances of the State Associations.
Before Vision 2047, there was Lakshya 2022. A comprehensive document created by then AIFF Technical director Robert Bann, it too was purported to be a ‘One vision, one mission’ goal and was supposed to be the master plan for Indian football for the coming years. Ten years later, a new AIFF and a new roadmap are here. Lakshya 2022 focused on the U17 World Cup and how it would bring an infra and investment change in Indian football. Vision 2047 focuses on empowering state associations, increasing the AIFF’s revenue streams and making India a force in Asia first. While the AIFF has succeeded in providing roadmaps aplenty, it's the implementation that leaves much to be desired.
Infrastructure development
AIFF announced that they intended to finalise the plans to create a mega football park – the likes of England’s St George’s Park, a national footballing centre of excellence spread over 330 acres of land – by 2026. They also said that the current national centre of excellence, being built in Kolkata, will be fully operational by 2026 and that plans for a ‘smart stadium’ and two FIFA standard stadiums would be provided by 2026 – with the goal to have 30 FIFA standard stadiums and 12 ‘smart’ stadiums by 2047.
Goals for the national teams
Japan, Iran, South Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Oman and Uzbekistan – these are the current Top 10 teams in Asian football with India ranked 19th. Curiously, the AIFF believes that within the next three years, India will: send a U-17 team for both men and women to the FIFA U-17 World Cup; see the men’s team become a Top 10 team in Asia; and see the women’s team become a Top 8 team in Asia.
There is no doubt that there is plenty of ambition in this roadmap of the AIFF.
But the organisation seems to have traded the failed promise of a World Cup appearance within eight years, to systemic changes across football in India – with not much control over how and whether those changes ever take place.
