Shukla Dutta appointed India U19 women's football team head coach

New Delhi: Former India player Shukla Dutta was on Saturday appointed the country's U19 women's football team coach ahead of the SAFF Championships in February next year.

Dutta, a former India U17 women's team coach, will be assisted by ex-India international Sradhanjali Samantaray, and goalkeeping coach Lourembam Ronibala Chanu in an all-women support staff team.

The India team will begin its preparations for the SAFF Championships early next month in Goa.

"The Under-19 SAFF for women is an important tournament for us. This tournament is a stepping stone for talented players to move to the next level, which is the seniors," said All India Football Federation acting secretary-general M Satyanarayan in a statement.

"It is great to find that we have an all-women technical staff for the U19 women's team," Satyanarayan added.

The competition started in 2018 and India has participated four times, bagging the title in 2022, while finishing runners-up to Bangladesh in the 2021 edition.

India had finished third this year.

The virtual meeting to select the support staff was chaired by former India captain IM Vijayan and attended by Satyanarayan, Manoranjan Bhattacharya (deputy chairman, technical committee), Syed Sabir Pasha (technical director), among others.