AIFF Media Team

NEW DELHI: The All India Football Federation’s Sports Medical Committee decided on the Bone Age Determination Programme (BADP) of AIFF's youth leagues for the next four seasons.

The Sports Medical committee of the apex body finalised the participation eligibility bone age cut-off of Hero Sub Junior League and Hero Junior League for next four seasons. Meanwhile, the calendar for the next four seasons and relevant cut-offs for all three AIFF Youth Leagues (Hero Sub Junior, Junior and Elite league) have already been shared with the clubs and the academies in June 2019.

"Finalising the Eligibility cut-offs for the next four seasons will not only help AIFF to streamline the entire program but will also aid the clubs and academies to tap on eligible players in advance and nurture them for future," Sunando Dhar, CEO, I-League mentioned, "The bone age determination program adopted by AIFF is the best available method at present to provide a level playing field to the young players who are going to be the backbone of our different National Teams."

The committee, giving strong considerations on the sporting aspects of the game, took a crucial decision that the bone age determination tests (as per the AIFF BADP guidelines) will be conducted only once in a player's career.

In order to calculate the eligibility (for participation in leagues) for the upcoming season(s), following the date on which the player gets tested, the AIFF would take the time period (years, months, days) passed between the date of the test and 1st of September of the respective year into account and add that resultant figure to the bone age rating received under the AIFF BADP Guidelines, to get the bone-age rating for that season.

Given the huge task to be undertaken under the AIFF BADP program, the AIFF has come up with its own app and an online system for better management of the entire BADP program (admin and operations vertical of the program), which will be rolled out, shortly.

It was further decided that from January 2020, the BADP test window will be kept open throughout the year for teams to get their players tested at any point of time. The detailed guidelines will be shared with the clubs and academies.

The Bone age cut-offs and the calendars of all youth tournaments for the next four seasons can be downloaded from https://bit.ly/2MSVovG.