Photo courtesy: AIFF Media

The President of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) Praful Patel chaired AIFF’s Executive Committee Meeting at AIFF Headquarters, Football House in Dwarka, New Delhi on Monday (September 28, 2015).

Besides, AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das, Vice Presidents Subrata Dutta, Larsing Ming, KMI Mather and Subhash Chopra; Treasurer ZA Thakur, and all other Members, except Shrinivas Dempo (Vice President), Sunil Bharadwaj, Jesiah Villavarayar and CDR Com. Pushpendra Kumar Garg, attended the Meeting.

Indian National Team Coach Stephen Constantine and Technical Director Scott O’Donnell were also present as were Javier Ceppi, Tournament Director, 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup and Joy Bhattacharyja, Project Director, 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Furthermore, representatives from FSDL also attended the Meeting.

The Committee congratulated the U-16 boys (National Team) for gaining an automatic qualification into the AFC U-16 Finals scheduled to be held in Goa next year. The colts being coached by Nicolai Adam despite being guaranteed of a spot in the Finals (next year) by virtue of being the hosts, finished as one of the second best teams to qualify on ‘merit.’

O’Donell, however, cautioned all to stay grounded and not get carried away by the encouraging results as sterner tests “lie ahead.” The roadmap for the second phase of scouting for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup was explained in a detailed presentation.

Meanwhile, Javier Ceppi made a presentation on the preparatory process for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup event.

With two more home matches of the Indian National Team still to be played in the Russia 2018 World Cup Preliminary Joint Qualification Rounds, it was decided that the Indian Senior National Team will be playing their Home Match against Guam in Bengaluru on November 12.

The Committee unanimously granted to Madhya Pradesh FA the right to host the Senior National Women’s Championship while the final phase of the next edition of the Santosh Trophy will be held in Nagpur.

It was decided that the 2nd Division League would be divided into a Conference – Western Conference and Eastern Conference – and would be played on a home and away basis. The top three teams from each Conference would be qualifying for the final phase of the league which would also be held on a home and away basis.

In addition, the U-15 and the U-18 League have been divided into five zones (Goa, East, Maharashtra, North East and the Rest of India Zone) and the top two from each zone would be qualifying for the Final Phase of the League.

The Committee also issued a directive to the Haryana Football Association to hold the elections at the earliest (not held since 2007) and to furnish the Constitution immediately.

Meanwhile, the AIFF AGM for 2015 would be held on December 20, 2015 in Goa.

(Report & Photo courtesy: AIFF Media)