By David Gold
November 21 – Zhang Jilong (pictured), the acting President of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), has claimed that Indian football is making progress, at a meeting of an Ad Hoc Committee created to improve the state of the game in the country.
“AFC succeeded in setting up the criteria for Indian League, the selection of Indian League participating clubs and the launch of the league,” he said.
“AFC will continue to support Indian football because we want India to move forward as a leading member association of the continent.
“FIFA and AFC are both working together towards development of Indian football.
“We need all the Asian countries, irrespective of their size or strength, to make progress.”
The Committee has been meeting for the past two years, with football clubs in the country being inspected in the hope that they would become more professional in the coming years.
A club licensing system is just one of the new measures in the pipeline as the AFC hope that their support for the game in India bears fruit.
Kushal Das, the general secretary of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), said: “Three clubs organise their home matches and we hope in the future more will follow.
“We also have a Committee to review and monitor activities of the league.
“We have also started a centralised accreditation system and formulated national club licensing regulations.
“We will also form a club licensing committee and club licensing appeals body soon.”
David Borja, FIFA’s senior development manager in Asia, also said that world football’s governing body would be funding regional academies in India with $200,000 (£128,000/€149,000) per year over the next five years, also stressing its commitment to supporting youth development in the country.
The last scheduled meeting of the Committee is due to take place in India in 2012.
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