The President of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) Praful Patel chaired the AIFF Executive Committee Meeting at Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi on Friday (November 27).

Besides, AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das, Vice Presidents Subrata Dutta and Subhash Chopra and all other members, except Shrinivas Dempo, Larsing Ming, KMI Mather, Amit Ranjan Dev, Sunil Bharadwaj, Jesiah Villavarayar, Sara Pilot and Treasurer ZA Thakur, attended the meeting.

AIFF Technical Director Scott O’Donnell and Indian U-17 National Coach Nicolai Adam were also present as were Baichung Bhutia (Advisor, AIFF), Abhishek Yadav (Director, Scouting, AIFF), Javier Ceppi (Tournament Director, FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017) and Joy Bhattacharyja (Project Director, FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017).

Chirag Tanna represented FSDL in attended the meeting.

Patel spoke on the significance of the two back to back mega AFC events which are being held in India. “It’s an honour for us that AFC have chosen India to host the AFC Annual Awards and the 5th AFC Medical Conference,” he stated.

The AFC Annual Awards are slated to be held on November 29 while the AFC Medical Conference will be held from November 30 to December 2, 2015.

There was a discussion on the future plan of the National Team wherein all unanimously agreed the Grassroots Programme holds the key for the future.

However, the Committee felt that there should be a short term goal for the National Team because unless the National Team puts in a good performance, there’s always a negative perception regarding Indian football.

The objective, the Committee felt was to see that that India qualifies for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup in UAE.

There was also a presentation made on the second round of scouting for the section of the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 which was followed by a detailed discussion for getting better players for the India U-17 national team.

Meanwhile, the Committee, as per the suggestions given by the I-League Committee and after consultaion with AFC, decided to hold the Federation Cup on a home and away basis for the season 2015/16. The top eight teams as per the standings after the completion of the league would be participating in the Federation Cup.

Patel also requested FSDL to market and ensure that all the matches are telecasted live.

In the last meeting, the Committee had issued a directive to the Haryana Football Association (HFA) to hold the elections at the earliest (not held since 2007) and to furnish the constitution immediately.

But due to the complete lack of response from the Haryana State FA, the Committee, as per the AIFF Constitution, decided to appoint an Adhoc Committee to enable the elections to be held within six months.

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

(Report & Photo courtesy AIFF Media)