AIFF Media Team

KOLKATA: The new Technical Committee of the All India Football Federation met in Kolkata on Sunday, September 18, 2022 under the Chairmanship of IM Vijayan. Others present in meeting were Deputy Chairman Manoranjan Bhattacharya, Climax Lawrence, Harjinder Singh, Arun Malhotra, Eugeneson Lyngdoh, and Pinky Bompal Magar.

The Technical Committee discussed a wide range of topics, the recommendations from which, will be presented to the Executive Committee when it meets on Monday, September 19 in the same city.

In the first agenda of the meeting, the Technical Committee recommended the extension of Senior Men’s Team Head Coach Igor Stimac’s contract till the AFC Asian Cup 2023.

The improvement of coaching in India was also discussed by the committee, which insisted to make sure that all Indian coaches are used in every age group, so that they gain more experience to take Indian Football forward together.

The Technical Committee decided to discontinue the participation of the Indian Arrows in the Hero I-League because of the difficulty in fulfilling the AFC Licensing criteria. However, the finances used for the Indian Arrows will now be invested in creating a new Elite Youth League in the country.

The committee also recommended to appoint more women coaches across the country for the women’s national teams. The Technical Committee has also asked for fresh plans for the development of women’s football in the country, as well as the Senior Women’s National Team.

Technical Committee Chairman IM Vijayan said, “I was glad to see so many familiar faces from the footballing community in this first meeting of the new Technical Committee today. It feels good that the technical matters of Indian Football are being taken care of by former footballers. We had an extremely fruitful meeting, and it is our hope that we can take Indian Football to greater heights with the decisions that we made here.”

Earlier in the morning, the Executive Committee members of the AIFF visited the National Centre of Excellence and inspected the venue. The new management will evaluate the project and finalise a revised plan after discussing in the Executive Committee meeting on how to complete the project for the optimum usage of facility. Later, the Technical Committee members met the AIFF President Mr. Kalyan Chaubey and discussed various aspects on the development of Indian Football.