The All India Football Federation via a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday announced the Strategic Roadmap till 2047 for the overall development of Indian Football. The long-due roadmap, ‘Vision 2047’, hopes that in the country’s centenary year of independence, India will also emerge as a new powerhouse of Asian football.
Earlier on it was said that the long-awaited roadmap would be announced 100 days after the appointment of the newly elected committee of AIFF President Mr. Kalyan Chaubey. But, due to it clashing with the FIFA World Cup matches in Qatar and the hype surrounding it, later on, it was delayed by three weeks and was said to be officially announced on the 7th of January.
The duo of Kalyan Chaubey (President) and Shaji Prabhakaran (General Secretary) revealed ‘Vision 2047’, a 25-year plan with the intention to make the country a footballing hub by then. In an event that spanned more than an hour, Chaubey and Prabhakaran explained in length each of the 11 core areas of focus which are the main points of contention in AIFF’s 94-slide document, which has the nitty-gritty of the roadmap itself.
Developed in conjunction with all stakeholders within Indian Football, the roadmap has also sought and incorporated inputs from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and FIFA. The salient ambitions of the roadmap are to see India among the top four footballing nations in Asia, host one of the top leagues in Asia, and create a vibrant footballing ecosystem.
The AIFF Presidents’ Views on the Roadmap
“I dream of reviving the glory days of Indian Football as it was in the 1950s and 60s. We want India to become a powerhouse of Asian football once again. It is our right to dream and our duty to do everything it takes to fulfill that dream. Together, we can aspire to take Indian Football to peaks never scaled before,” said Mr. Kalyan Chaubey during the presentation of the Roadmap on Saturday.
The General Secretary’s Views on the Roadmap
“By 2036, the centenary of the Federation. India will be among the top seven countries in Asia, and a strong contender to qualify for the World Cup on merit,” said Mr. Shaji Prabhakaran.
A Short Note on the Sports EcoSystem of India
The Mission of the Roadmap
To take an active role in making Football become a sport of the masses in the country, with a focus on driving joy in communities, fostering excellence, and being an agent of social change through teamwork & collaboration and ensuring prosperity for India.
The Vision of the Roadmap
To make football an incredible sport for an incredible India by building a well-established ecosystem that would be a value proposition not only for India but for the world.
A Basic Guide to all the AIFF’s Stakeholders
A view of all the present Indian Football fortes in Numbers
The Ideology to Adopt a Unique Nationwide Playing Style
A piece of Brief information about Vision 2047!
The year 2047 will mark the 100th year of India’s Independence from British Rule. The target is that by then, India would become a footballing powerhouse in Asia and the world. AIFF has big promises to take Indian Football to the next dimension by the time the special year 2047 arrives.
‘Vision 2047’ has been broken down, for diligent implementation, into six four-year strategic plans. The first of these will look to cover the period till 2026. In lieu of the same, the Federation will support Member Associations or the State Federations with capacity building and help them rise in the Football Pyramid by providing highly relevant ‘Support Solutions’. This support will enable them to be self-sufficient by 2027 and in turn help, the ecosystem thrives.
There are 11 Core areas that have been focussed during this roadmap which has been taken. They include Governance, Refereeing, Clubs, National teams, Competitions, Infrastructure, Digital Transformation, Talent Identification, Marketing, Coach Education, and Grassroots.
Below is a Detailed Explanation of all the 11 Core Areas.
1) Roadmap for the Governance
The goal is to govern football with utmost integrity, and inclusivity, through teamwork & collaboration and become an example of Good Governance. AIFF feels that there is a need for governance and also with better Governance, they can take Indian Football to greater heights in the future.
Good governance is not a choice but a necessity to achieve excellence. Best-governed sporting organizations have a proper regulatory framework that protects stakeholders’ interests, guarantees the integrity of sports events and social and environmental responsibility, and has strict control mechanisms on the allocation and use of development funds. Hence, creating value not only for the Sport but also for the community at large.
“Transformation will begin at home through a reform of the organizational culture,” Secretary General Dr. Shaji Prabhakaran said, referring to a need for better governance of the game across the country. “A restructuring exercise will be carried out to streamline current operations and develop a team which adopts the industry’s best practices and is transparent in its dealings.”
Key Observations related to the Governance:-
- Lack of existing capacity to adopt good governance practices largely due to a lack of funds leading to a dearth of full-time professional roles
- Sports being a state subject, constitutions and invariably varied governance models are prevalent across different Member Associations
- A proactive self-regulatory approach is not followed leading to structural weaknesses and Limited stakeholder consultation and dialogue.
- Short-sighted goal-setting by most entities within the ecosystem.
- Scope to bring efficiencies in Process Execution and Accountability through digital adoption.
- Lack of inclusivity in Governance structures across the ecosystem.
More Attention Towards Women’s Football
The All India Football Federation has recognized that while women’s football has been growing rapidly across the world, it has previously received very little attention in India. The weak ecosystem needs specific solutions to help increase participation and competency across the pyramid.
Some of the proposed solutions include better adoption of women’s football by clubs across different levels, incentivizing the role of coaches, referees, and match commissioners for women, as well as providing a minimum salary to women’s players. The football governing body also conceded that the women’s football ecosystem has been weak in the country and needed specific solutions to help increase participation and competency, also mentioning the need to improve the minimum salary.
The New Organizational Structure of the AIFF and its Stakeholders
Here is the new flowchart working model of the AIFF and its Member Association
2) Roadmap for the Infrastructure
The goal for Infrastructure is “Primarily for Advocating an enabling policy framework from relevant authorities through a collaborative approach to attract sizeable investments in developing infrastructure for competitions and Football Development across the country in a feasible and sustainable model.”
Infrastructure is key to achieving many long-term goals. The All India Football Federation has observed that there has, over the past decades, been a reduction in playgrounds in urban areas. Many top professional clubs do not yet own football infrastructure and it’s a serious issue.
The Federation plans to conduct a pan-India infrastructure census by 2025. The AIFF also said it will improve infrastructure by putting in place policy interventions that will incentivize government authorities, football clubs, corporates, and private investors to invest in infrastructure. For an improvement in quantity and eventually the quality of Football in a country, the number of accessible playing surfaces needs to increase.
While full-sided pitches are critical to allow matches and formal training, small-sided pitches have proven to be a game changer globally as players get to spend more time with the ball and it facilitates the intensive technical development needed in a learning phase. Football stadiums are increasingly crucial to the commercial strategies of football clubs from selling branding rights to matchday revenue.
A grading and licensing criteria will be in place by 2024, and a mega football park will be formalized by 2026. It also said that the National Centre of Excellence will be fully functional by 2026. The AIFF expects to have Two FIFA standard stadiums and one smart stadium built in coordination with the government and they want to finish the project by 2026, and by 2047 that figure will stand at 30 football-specific stadiums and 12 smart stadiums.
Along with that, it can be expected to see a minimum of 50 football pitches in every district and also a dedicated National Centre of Excellence in every state association and it will also ensure that they help at least 50 professional clubs in building and having their own training grounds.
The Key Observation for the Infrastructures
- Lack of an adequate number of Full-Size Pitches
- Lack of world-class football-specific stadiums for organization international competitions.
- With a rapid dwindling of free space in Urban areas over the past 2 decades, community playgrounds are slowly vanishing.
- Lack of infrastructure ownership across the Football Ecosystem including top professional clubs
- The majority of existing Infrastructure ownership lies with Governments and their affiliates
- Accessibility Issues around existing infrastructure pose varying challenges in different parts of the country
- The sustainability model of Clubs in India leads to very low investment in building infrastructure with Football Infrastructure development not being an investment-friendly proposition across the country
- The unavailability of a well-defined ‘Infrastructure Grading & Licensing’ framework leads to ‘limited understanding around existing infrastructure in place’
3) Roadmap for Digital Transformation
The goal of Digital Transformation is “The digitization of every aspect of football and the adoption of new technologies to support the growth of football in line with the federation’s long-term goals.”
Digital and technological adoption in the modern world is an integral part of every organization and sector. While some have adopted digital at the early stages of technological innovations, it has been observed that the sports sector has largely been a laggard in digital adoption across the world.
Developed countries are among the top few, leading the race to embrace digital solutions in different aspects of Football to bring more efficiency and excellence. Today, digitization is being used in Fan Engagement, Player Performance Management, and bringing all stakeholders together to promote collaboration and enhance operational efficiencies across the ecosystem
The Key Observations from Digital Transformation
- At Organization Level, While the AIFF has adopted digital solutions in multiple aspects, the adoption of new-age digital tools around workforce, processes, interactions, and analytics are needed to be more efficient.
- The Digital Aspects of the current Football Ecosystem are not capable of managing information around all stakeholders in an efficient and continuous manner across the lifecycle of stakeholders.
- The limited use of digital technologies around enabling the ecosystem, while no focus on using new technologies such as Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Augmented Reality.
Structured Football Ecosystem under new Digital Transformation
4) Roadmaps for the Refereeing
The goal is to “Produce enough competent referees to support India’s growing Competition Structure with a sharp focus on developing excellence for them to be consistently officiating Global Level matches.”
Refereeing as a profession has changed drastically over the past decade with the introduction of technologies such as Goal Line Technology and Video Assistant refereeing to name a few of the new advancements in this area. With multiple replays from different angles, and real-time on-demand analysis match officials are under greater scrutiny than ever before. However, across the world, even today refereeing is not a financially sustainable career until one makes it to the top of the pyramid.
AIFF wants to start courses for refereeing in India and train them with the new initiative called the CORE – Centre of Refereeing Excellence. To know more about how it will work in building and producing elite referees from India in the future, go through the visual below.
AIFF will sign 50 professional elite referees and they will announce their names on 10th January at the Football House. This will be the first step (in improving refereeing) since they took over the office. By 2047, the main aim is to have Indian officials officiating at the highest level of football regularly.
The Key Objectives of Refereeing are:-
- Insufficient number of games at the Elite level to develop referees professionally.
- No dedicated coaching support for Elite match officials.
- No accelerated promotion for talented individuals.
- Not enough sustainable livelihood opportunities in the existing ecosystem, leading to Refereeing being not chosen as a full-time profession.
- Significant scope for improvement in the Quality of the Referees and Refereeing in India.
5) Roadmap for the Clubs
The goal is to “Empower clubs to be the focal point of ‘Talent Development’ to grow the competitive level of football.”
The quality of the clubs and the player pathway offered by the clubs are decisive in the development of football in any country. A vast talent identification network linked to clubs across the pyramid creates the net required to effectively induct the best talent into the formal football structure.
Once identified, these talents are groomed and eventually follow their pathway up the pyramid through the club competition system. Grassroots activations and subsequent hyperlocal growth of the sport are driven by clubs and academies. With a deeper connection to its immediate local communities, clubs often lead the charge of harnessing football to impart social change.
The plans for the clubs state that right now there are 4,500 clubs in the competitive structure. By 2047, AIFF would like to see that figure go up to 20,000. The All India Football Federation effectively wants to see 100 clubs in our professional structure and a minimum of 20 stand-alone women’s clubs, and also at least one of the clubs should be a champion in an Asian club competition by 2037.
The Key Observation for the Clubs are:
- Most of the National Level Clubs don’t have an ‘Elite Talent Development Structure’ in place.
- Also, Investing in Football Clubs is not viewed as an attractive business model in India.
- Unscientific Scouting and Talent Development
- The low club-to-population ratio in most areas
- Low adoption levels of Women’s Football by existing clubs across the pyramid.
- Negligible level of constant activities in grassroots development at a club level.
- Barring a few, most clubs lack consorted efforts and resulting in Fan Development and Engagement.
- Majority of expenses are for the first team hinting at a very short-term outlook, insufficient investment in creating infrastructure, youth development, and scouting structure
6) Roadmap for the Grassroots
The goal is to “Drive maximum participation at the grassroots in collaboration with the stakeholders.”
Greater participation at the grassroots increases the possibility of identifying elite talent at an early age. The wider the base & greater the participation, the greater the strength of the pyramid.
In most developed football ecosystems, Governments invest hugely into grassroots as a means of engaging communities. With substantial public health and socio-economic benefits from investments in Grassroots sports, they end up driving both participation and infrastructure investments through tailored policies and programs.
Accessibility to local football facilities and socio-cultural factors alongside the popularity of the sport in a country has proven to be the most important factor for the adoption of the sport globally. Club football is the leading access route globally for boy’s football followed by school football, female only competitions are the most prevalent access route for girls with mixed football a close second.
The Federation observed that at the grassroots, the beautiful game, currently, has low participation relative to its size and population. There is a huge gender disparity in participation, and a lack of facilities and playfields in urban areas where children can come out and play. A lack of cohesion and focus between different stakeholders has led to significant gaps in funding.
The AIFF’s 2026 target is to reach 35 million children through grassroots programs and implement village grassroots programs across 100 villages throughout India. The flagship grassroots project will also aim to register 1 million registered players and provide football education to 25 million children through Football for Schools.
Key Observation from the Grassroots:-
- Baby leagues are currently the only concrete initiative targeting grassroots from an organized central level.
- Relatively low participation number with respect to India’s size and population.
- Large Gender disparities exist in the Participation levels of Boys and Girls.
- Irregular level of formal activities with short engagement periods.
- Not enough trained personnel are involved in grassroots football.
- There is a lack of urban community football facilities, and there isn’t enough trained personnel involved in grassroots football.
- Spontaneous participation is limited to certain regions where football is amongst the top 3 sports of choice.
- Significant Funding gaps owing to a lack of focus from most stakeholders.
- Lack of defined pathway between grassroots football and the Youth Structure.
- Lack of cohesion between different stakeholders.
- North-Eastern states are an exception where Football remains the sport of choice.
7) Roadmap for the Talent Development and Identification
The goal is to “Ensure every talent gets a chance to be inducted into the formal football structure that consistently produces players of a Global Competitive Level through a conducive ecosystem design.”
Clubs and academies are the dominant key stakeholders in player identification and development in most of the top 100 ranked countries. However, setting a clear direction through a formal talent identification strategy in line with the overall ‘National Football Philosophy’ helps shape the characteristics of the talent pool.
A systematic approach that is data-driven has defined criteria for player selection and measures to deal with the relative age effect have a significant impact on the effectiveness of a country’s ability to spot players with strong natural abilities.
More than 80% of the top 1-20 ranked countries have adopted a systematic approach to talent identification a number that progressively drops off to around 35% in the 51-100 ranked bracket.
The Federation observed that the talent identification and development ecosystem is currently informal, with clubs and Federation bodies all largely working in silos without a systematic or uniform approach.
The AIFF proposes to change this by creating a data-driven scouting structure from the Elite Youth League System for its National Teams. Clubs will drive talent identification at the grassroots unto the Elite Youth structure. To help this get better results, FIFA’s global head of football development and legendary football coach Arsene Wenger himself has promised to help the AIFF regarding this matter.
The All India Football Federation aims to make India one of the leading hubs or in simple words – the factory to produce the best-groomed and talented football players. The federation feels India has enormous potential to become one of the leading talent exporters in the upcoming days.
Key Observation from the talent development and identification are:-
- Informal personnel-driven scouting networks are prevalent across the pyramid.
- The ecosystem is largely informal where clubs and federation bodies are all largely working in silos without a systematic or uniform approach.
- Decent spurt in private academy infrastructure across the country leading to a gradual growth of the Youth talent pool in the formal infrastructure.
- Scarcity of modern scouting education across the country.
- A low number of specialized coaches or elite coaches working in the Youth/Grassroots levels.
- While training hours are largely on par with global Below and Age Category 12-15 Above 16 standards, a significant gap remains when it comes to competitive games across the year.
- A Large gap in facilities between Elite and non-Elite Youth Setups.
- Weak competitive structures for youth football.
- Lack of a focused approach from clubs in identifying talent and developing elite players.
- Most Elite Talent is Concentrated in only a select few States of the county leading to a lack of capitalization of the population dividend
8) Roadmap for the Coach Education
The goal is to “Build a policy and framework which is consistent with the national football philosophy to make India self-reliant in meeting the coaching manpower of global excellence to meet demands at all levels.”
In an ever-evolving modern coaching landscape, a significant amount of elite methodology is research-based. No single curriculum or institution can provide all the necessary tools to build a state-of-the-art coach education framework.
A collaborative approach beyond traditional football licensing benchmarks across disciplines and a continuous learning environment are crucial to holistic coach development.
A comprehensive talent identification network coupled with a definitive development pathway with an overarching ‘national football philosophy’ embedded within the curriculum would enable the synchronization of the football community across varying levels of ability.
One of the cornerstones of the roadmap is the creation of a national playing philosophy, which will be developed over time after consultation, observation, and exploration. Subsequently, the ‘Coach Education Program structure will be developed in line with our ‘Indian National Football Philosophy’.
The improvement of footballing quality at all levels of the ecosystem demands better coaching and with that in mind, the roadmap targets creating 50,000 active coaches – almost 4,500 with a minimum AIFF C License – across the country.
Key Observations from the Coach Education are:-
- Significant scope for improvement in the Coach Education Program Structure.
- The number of coaches compared to our population is significantly below global benchmarks.
- There is a shortage of quality coach educators (A, B, C License)
- The absence of a ‘National Playing Philosophy’ is leading to a lack of synchronization in coach education.
- Geographical and Language barriers hinder the scalability of coaching programs.
- Low levels of current economic return create a hindrance to career adoption across levels
9) Roadmap for Competitions
The goal is to “Make a robust competition structure covering the entire football pyramid with competitions being at the center of football development.”
There is a direct correlation between the level of a country’s national team performance and the number of teams in the top-tier league of the respective country. While the average number of teams for the Men’s game in countries ranked between 51-100 is 14.6 it steadily rises to 16.5 and 17.6 for the top 21-50 and 1-20 respectively. While the gap is lower for Women’s football it still rises from 10.3 in the 51-100 category to 11.3 in the top 20.
Countries with more clubs competing in a longer league are able to offer more professional slots in the top tier, widening the talent pool as well as offering a bigger opportunity of crucial playing minutes to younger players. Both of these are key to the effective transitioning of developmental players into senior football.
a) The Competition Structure for Women’s Football
By 2026 – the period of the first strategic plan – the All India Football Federation will ensure the creation of a four-level league table pyramid, the top of which will be occupied by the Indian Women’s League (featuring 10 teams), followed by the 2nd Division (8 teams).
In addition, there will be five zonal leagues with eight teams each. In addition, a new women’s youth league structure has been proposed, which will see players across different age groups play a minimum of 14 matches. The Federation will ensure that a minimum of 20 states implement the new women’s youth structures by 2027.
b) The Competition Structure for Men’s Football
On the men’s side, the current strategic plan will ensure the creation of a three-tier national league pyramid with 40 teams. The Indian Super League and Hero I-League will boast 14 teams each while the Hero I-League 2nd Division will consist of 12 teams.
A revamped men’s youth league structure will see the local state youth league and elite youth leagues will run simultaneously. Clubs and academies will participate in both with the winners of the state youth leagues qualifying for the Elite youth league.
The Key Observations for the Existing Structure are:-
- While India did have inter-state youth level competitions through NFCs, the concept of national level youth leagues is relatively nascent, only having started after 2015 and having competitions at the U13,15 and U18 Levels.
- The last few years have seen an increase in the Number of Youth Teams in all age groups but with respect to our population, we still have massive scope for increasing participation
- A team gets on an average of 8 to 14 matches based on their qualification to the next stages of the tournaments, which are substantially lower than global standards.
- A gap of 3 years between U13 and U18 levels is too wide, moreover, there is a lack of successful transition of Youth players into Senior Football between the 17-20 age group.
- Logistical costs around the Traveling, Food and Lodging for the Home-Away concept are high for clubs and cause a hindrance to elongated youth league structures at a National level. Hyper localization on the other hand creates large disparities in competitive levels between Elite Youth teams and the rest.
The Club and National Team Competitions
A state championship structure will see city and district leagues feed into the state championships.
Futsal will also be treated as a serious competition rather than a fun activity
More Focus on the Beach Soccer and E-Football competitions
An overview of all the new and revamped competition structures
The Road to the top of the pecking order for player’s development through the competition ranks
10) Roadmap for the National Teams
The goal is to “Exhibit a brand of Football that would attract the masses and produce excellence on the pitch.”
The national team is largely considered a reflection of the country’s culture and Football Identity. The topmost priority and the most important product of results-oriented team sports dictate the value chain and the vibrancy of the ecosystem which is heavily linked to historical success.
The level of national team performance is directly linked to the level of its respective culture, talent, and competitive environment that the players are exposed to.
In the last 36 years, the India Men’s National Team has qualified for 3 out of a possible 34 Senior Men’s tournaments on merit, never making it out of the group. India has never made it into the Final round of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers or in simpler words, India has never made it past the first phase of FIFA World Cup Qualification in its entire history.
For the Women’s National Team, after finishing 2nd, 3rd, and 2nd in the 1980,81 and 83 editions respectively, In the Last 36 Years, the Women’s National team has qualified for 6 of the possible 15 tournaments, never making it out of the Group stage.
Key Observations from the National Teams:-
- While there has been a consistent recent success at qualifying for the AFC U16 Championship, India hasn’t participated at the U-19 level since 2006 when it hosted the tournament.
- While the influx of higher-quality foreign players into the Hero ISL has helped raise the level of footballers, key positions in most teams are occupied by foreign players hindering the progress of Indian talents.
- A short league duration and substantially lower number of domestic matches across the entire pyramid is detrimental to the optimum development of players with none of our current Men’s National Team players playing in any other competitive league abroad.
- There is a lack of uniform adoption of Sports Science & technology in different National Team Setups.
- A lack of full utilization of all FIFA Windows throughout the year.
- While India’s competitive level in the Women’s game is substantially higher than the Men’s team, similar to the Men’s teams, India is yet to qualify for a major FIFA Event on Merit.
- An unscientific Scouting network with a lack of elite player development causes a quality gap between the Indian players and the foreign players.
11) Roadmap of the Marketing and the Commercialization
The goal is to “Drive the creation and optimization of value across the ‘Football Ecosystem’ in collaboration with our partners.”
Of the three main pillars of revenue globally namely Broadcast followed by Commercial Partnerships and Matchday revenue, the first has proven to be the fastest growing over the past two decades globally with an influx of OTT and Digital bundled into rights packages growing from around 20% of the revenue in the mid-90s to over 40% in most European Markets.
The All India Football Federation (AIFF) recognizes that growth in modern sports requires a business outlook. The Federation will dedicate an entire division – Business and marketing – to develop, cultivate and invite investment and partnerships in Indian Football for the future days.
In an ever-evolving digital environment, there has been a substantial shift in the way football is consumed. Brands have started to realize the vast potential and have been investing heavily in engaging consumers on digital platforms.
Key Observations from the Marketing and Commercialization:-
- The total Annual Budget of the AIFF is around 80Cr annually which is substantially lower than counterparts in Asia making funding the required competition structures in a vast country challenging.
- The Emergence of the Hero Indian Super League has brought in an influx of new money into the football ecosystem with most clubs functioning with annual budgets anywhere between roughly 3-6 Million USD, However, it’s still about 1% of the budgets of top Football Clubs Globally.
- With the second largest population in the world and one of the largest fanbases of the Sport in the world, India has the potential of being the football market with the highest scope of growth globally.
- Digital Media in Indian Sports is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 20% in the next decade opening a window of commercial opportunity.
- Financial sustainability is a major issue in club football with almost all clubs posting major losses every year.
- While Football can be categorized as amongst the top 3 most popular Sports in India certain pockets such as Kerala, and North Eastern States has over 20% of Football viewership as a share of their total Sports Viewership.
- With a large fanbase following European Football, viewership numbers have been affected by slow conversion into Indian Football.
- Most top football properties are not attracting enough commercial value with broadcast right revenues almost non-existent.
- Investment in Women’s Football from the AIFF is around 1/3rd of that of Men’s Football.
- A Lack of Significant National Team sporting success for decades at the International Level led to low commercial value being generated
Presently the revenue generated by the AIFF stands at an estimated INR 80 Crores, and they expect to increase their budget by a 500% hike within the next 5 years. The Secretary-General mentioned that similar to FIFA+, India, and AIFF will come up with something similar so that it can contribute to the world of football digitally as well. It will also help in getting some added revenue by streaming the national team matches and some local state league matches as well.
The revenue model of club football is also expected to undergo a major revamp as AIFF wants to generate 500 crores from its major competitions, up several times from the current levels of revenue. The AIFF officials did not clarify whether the telecast rights for the Indian Super League will be brought to an open market bid to achieve this.
Conclusion of the Roadmap
The AIFF aims to help India become one of the top 4 nations in Asia when the year 2047 comes. Also, a football icon from the country is expected to be built by 2027 which will inspire future generations. According to the roadmap, by 2026 the Indian men’s team will be among the top 10 in Asia (Top 7 by 2036), while the women’s team will be among the top 8 in the continent. And India will aim to qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup, for both men & women, by merit. So it’s certainly a very ambitious one.
The investments are also set to come in from various areas as they will be needed to fuel the development of Indian Football. The Roadmap is undoubtedly very enterprising and the most definitive one ever announced to date. Although there is no deadline or any fake hopes and promises of world cup qualification, there is more focus on the basic things of the sports’ growth in the country.
It is believed that if we give attention to those details and implement it properly then surely it will be a matter of time before we will achieve greatness and fulfill all our dreams. What do you think of the new AIFF Strategic Roadmap? Share your honest thoughts in the comments section below.
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