The President of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) Praful Patel chaired the AIFF Executive Committee Meeting at the Constitution Club of India, New Delhi on Thursday (July 28, 2016).

Besides, AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das; Vice Presidents Subrata Dutta, KMI Mather, Shrinivas Dempo, Subhash Chopra, Larsing Ming; Treasurer ZA Thakur; Sara Pilot; and all other members except AR Khaleel and Jesiah Villavarayar attended the Meeting.

AIFF Technical Director Scott O’Donnell, Baichung Bhutia, Chairman, Technical Committee, AIFF; Javier Ceppi, Tournament Director, FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 and Joy Bhattacharya, Project Director, FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 were also present on the occasion.

Chirag Tanna and Rochak Langer representing FSDL attended the Meeting.

The Committee was apprised about the approval of the participation of 40 odd teams in the U-18 League (post inspections). This is a significant increase as in 2015-16, there was a participation of 28 teams in the League.

Besides, the U-16 Youth League has also witnessed a massive increase in teams. While in 2015-16, 39 teams had participated, the forthcoming edition will see over 50 Teams battling for the top honours.

Echoing the sentiment, Patel said: “This is a huge positive step.”

“It highlights the interest about the game among the younger generation. AIFF has been working extensively on the Grassroots and Youth Development, the results of which are beginning to show”, he added.

The first edition of the U-13 League is scheduled to kick-off in 2017-18 season.

The draft for the proposed restructuring of Indian club football was put forward to the Executive Committee for the members along with the comments received from I-League and Second Division clubs. The members of the Committee have been asked to come back with their suggestions.

Furthermore, the President suggested the formation of a working committee to initiate an extensive dialogue involving all stakeholders for the best possible path including discussion with AFC and FIFA.

The Committee also ratified the proposal of providing a time span of one year to Second Division clubs to complete their I-League Club Licensing Criteria instead of the prevailing three-month span.

The fee of the Central Registration System (CRS) was reduced from Rs. 15000 to Rs. 5000 for foreign players and to Rs. 5000 to Rs. 2000 for Indian players. In addition, Women players playing in the proposed Women’s League will have to pay a CRS fee of Rs. 1000 while all other Women players need to pay an amount of Rs. 100.

The AIFF regulations on working with the intermediaries were approved by the Committee.

Meanwhile, the Committee congratulated the Indian National Team for an authoritative display against Laos in the play-offs for the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 Qualifiers where India won 7-1 on aggregate.

Javier Ceppi also briefed the Committee about the organistion of the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017.

The proposed new logo of the AIFF was presented to the Committee and approved. The launch date of the logo will be decided soon by the President.

(Report & Photo courtesy AIFF Media)