In order for Indian football to stay viable and qualify for future World Cups, the All India Football Federation’s president Kalyan Chaubey and secretary-general Shaji Prabhakar announced an extensive roadmap for the next 25 years.
President of the All India Football Federation Kalyan Chaubey and secretary-general Shaji Prabhakar revealed a detailed roadmap for the development of Football from the grassroots level over the next 25 years. The 94-slide presentation, titled “Vision 2047,” lays out a plan for Indian football to take the lead in Asia by the nation’s 100th anniversary of independence.
The strategies involved in the roadmap were created in collaboration with all Indian football stakeholders and also incorporates feedback from the AFC and FIFA. The roadmap’s main goals are for India to become one of the top four footballing nations in Asia, to host one of the best leagues on the continent, to generate star players in both men’s and women’s competitions, and to establish a thriving footballing ecosystem with multiple tiers.
All you need to know about Vision 2047
One of the key elements of the roadmap is ensuring that gamers operating in the country have more access to competitions. The federation hopes that by 2047, players will be able to participate in at least 55 games each season in a number of different.
The organization is aware that a business perspective is necessary for modern sports to grow. The federation would dedicate an entire unit to business and marketing in order to promote, expand, and attract new investment and partnerships to Indian football.
The federation believes that the ecosystem for developing talent is currently informal, with clubs and federation organizations primarily operating in isolation without following a standardized procedure. The Elite Youth League System will be used by the AIFF to create a data-driven scouting framework for its national teams in an effort to change this. The Elite Youth framework will be driven by Football clubs for talent identification from the bottom to the top.
The majority of the roadmap is focused on improving district and state football. According to the Vision 2047 plan, the answer to these developments is to fortify tiered leagues at the district and state levels, through a powerful State Association organization. However, for the finances of these state and district- level football teams to succeed in a nation where elite clubs are losing money and are barely able to survive, solutions outside of those included in the roadmaps would be needed.
With mega camps scheduled at least twice a year, a greater emphasis will be placed on leveraging the FIFA windows across age levels to give exposure to players in the national teams. The federation will introduce a merit-based qualification for the FIFA U-17 World Cups for both men and women.
Arsene Wenger to help Indian football’s grassroots programs
Arsene Wenger, a former manager of Arsenal and the current head of global football development for international regulatory body FIFA, will participate in grassroots initiatives and talent development for Indian football. From 1996 to 2018, Wenger led Arsenal to three Premier League championships.
Kalyan Chaubey, the president of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), discussed youth development initiatives in India with Wenger and other senior FIFA and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) officials during the World Cup in Qatar. More information about Wenger’s participation will be provided next month.
A huge gap between promises and reality
While the Federation was making many big promises, a video of a young woman from West Bengal’s Behala went viral this week. Poulami Adhikari, a young college student from Behala, can be seen delivering meals wearing a Zomato outfit in the viral video. Poulami Adhikari, who had previously competed for the Indian women’s football team in numerous competitions, was forced to become a delivery agent because of a financial crisis.
Adhikari then explains her life narrative to the cameraman while discussing how she has represented the Indian women’s team in places like Germany, London, America, Sri Lanka, and Scotland. Following the release of the young player’s online video, a number of users expressed their disappointment with the condition of the sport in the nation despite the promises made by the Federation and politicians linked with the sport in the past.