Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 22: The international footballer and technical member of All India Football Federation (AIFF) Arun Malhotra spoke in detail about the roadmap recently unveiled by Kalyan Chaubey, president and secretary general Shaji Prabhakaran, today.
“Roadmap envisions India to be among the top eight and ten football nations in Asia for women’s and men’s football and in this regard, a strategic plan has been framed starting from 2023 up-to 2047,” said Malhotra during the function of AIFF at New Delhi.
He said that among development activities on target, the focus on structuring many areas, State and National competitions, renewed focus on women’s football, producing of coaches, referees’ development, infrastructure, grassroots football and empowering administration at district and state levels and above all its core is a ‘National Football Philosophy’.
Malhotra said, “After having all inputs and studying, the AIFF has chalked down a strategy for empowering States by holding junior and senior level leagues and competitions which will definitely help in the rise in football across the country.”
He further said that to realize the road map into reality, we all have to work in coordination under the guidelines of AIFF, so that we could achieve what we have designed for our future football.
“The AIFF is also looking for a possible MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) to build capacity in the local system and take the game forward in the UT,” he said.
He said that the land of Jammu has produced great talent in football of national and international repute but it is an admitted fact that we have to drastically improve in our infrastructure especially grounds with standard of AIFF and Football Academies on lines of Kashmir be made operative so that everybody is given equal chance and facilities to excel.
On DFA election, Malhotra said, “Jammu has ample senior players and coaches, even bright young minds who have all knowledge of administration and experience inside and outside the playground to run football affairs in Jammu and Kashmir.”
“We must take all stakeholders on board and should constitute a neutral body comprising all shades of opinion to run the football body”, he said.
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