Representatives of the Asian Football Confederations (AFC) met Tuesday the All India Football Federation (AIFF) at the Football House, New Delhi on the opening day of the AFC Futsal Development Programme - Assessment Visit to India.
The AFC was represented by Ali Targholizadeh, who is the Technical Director of the Futsal & Beach Soccer Development Department of the AFC, Jacob Joseph Biggs, the Project Manager of the AFC Futsal Development Programme and Badrul Hisham Bin Kalam of the AFC Futsal Referee's Department.
AIFF's General Secretary Kushal Das along with I-League CEO Sunando Dhar, AIFF's Technical Director Savio Medeira, AIFF's Head of Player Development Richard Hood were also in attendance at the meeting.
Speaking on the occasion, the AIFF General Secretary said, "We have trying to develop Futsal in India for some time now. This was missing from the Indian development programme. And I hope with the help of the AFC we should be able to start a futsal competition by this year in India. That is the objective."
Ali Targholizadeh opined, "Asia has almost 2/3rd of the world population and India is a major and very important part of that not just demographically but in other aspects too. Countries who might not be traditional footballing superpowers can do well in Futsal. I'm happy with AIFF's initiative to develop futsal for football and futsal for futsal which is a part of developing football overall."
"I think it's a new beginning for us and we are looking towards getting in more coaches and instructors to help us develop futsal in India", added Savio Medeira.
The meeting took place to discuss matters on regarding developing and creating a road map for Futsal in India. There was also a discussion on creating an ideal platform for the spread and advent of Futsal as a popular form of football in India. The AIFF conveyed its full commitment towards creating a pathway for courses, competitions and match officiating across our country that will help in development of Futsal.