JOIN USThe All India Football Federation (AIFF) and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) on Thursday entered into an agreement with an aim to develop the game at the grassroots level.
The agreement was signed by Kushal Das, the AIFF General Secretary and Hira Ballabh, Secretary, SAI, in the presence of Sarbananda Sonowal, the minister of Youth Affairs and Sports and Injeti Srinivas, Director General, SAI.
The agreement will enable AIFF to use SAI facilities across the country for training purposes, while the coaches across various SAI centres will now be a part of the AIFF coach’s training programme.
“We are pleased to sign this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SAI,” said Das.
“There are four aspects that are considered in this agreement -- coach training, talent scouting, talent development and usage of SAI infrastructure.
“The coaches that are part of the SAI centres across the country will now be a part of the AIFF coaching programme. “This would help them to use our technical know-how and also attain the AFC training certificate, which now is a must at the professional level.”
The Indian team coach Stephen Constantine had stressed on the need for a national training centre (NTC) for various national sides. Heeding the head coach’s request, the AIFF assured that the football body will soon start the work on bringing up the much-needed NTC.
Talking on the sidelines of the event, the AIFF General Secretary said that the federation will soon come up with its own NTC.“It’s (NTC) something that we have lacked. We are looking for a land and soon we will begin the work in that direction,” he said.