Arsene Wenger’s FIFA team to assist in India's football development, says vision plan
Coaches from FIFA’s development task force will be sent to aid Indian football’s development at the grassroots level as part of AIFF’s ‘Vision 2047’ strategic roadmap.
Football
Arsene Wenger, FIFA’s chief of the Global Football Development task force, will help develop Indian football at the grassroots level, All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Kalyan Chaubey said while unveiling the Vision 2047 roadmap on Saturday.
Arsene Wenger, famous for his managerial stint at the English Premier League club Arsenal, has written to the AIFF and promised his team’s support to help take Indian football forward. Kalyan Chaubey also held talks with senior FIFA and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) officials on the sidelines of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar.
"We have had extensive discussions with the FIFA development team,” Chaubey said during the Vision 2047 unveiling ceremony. “Arsene Wenger is head of the FIFA Task Force and they will help us in grassroots programmes. Coaches from Wenger's team would come," Kalyan Chaubey said.
Apart from being FIFA’s chief of Global Football Development, Wenger is a member of FIFA’s football and technical advisory panels and the chairman of FIFA’s technical study group. Wenger’s role also focuses on coach education.
As per Vision 2047, the AIFF plans to see India among the top four football nations in Asia.
The 24-year programme has been broken down into six four-year strategic plans. The first of the six plans will look to cover the period till 2026, where the AIFF will aim to increase participation at the grassroots level.
For women’s football, the AIFF aims to create a four-level league system in the first phase. The top level will be occupied by the 10-team Indian Women’s League. The next levels will be the second division, five zonal leagues and a new women’s youth league in respective order.
The AIFF will look to ensure that a minimum of 20 states implement the new women’s youth structures by 2027. For men's football, the AIFF wants to create a three-tier national league system with 40 teams.
The Indian Super League and I-League will boast 14 teams each while I-League’s second division will consist of 12 teams.
The AIFF also aims to revamp the domestic structure in such a way that the city and district-level leagues feed into the state championships.
On similar lines, the AIFF wants a revamped men's youth league structure with the local state youth league and elite youth league running simultaneously. The winning club team or the academy team from the state youth leagues will be promoted to the elite youth league.
The AIFF also proposed a data-driven scouting structure from the elite youth league systems for its national teams.