India to play more FIFA friendlies

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to the national team to play as many friendly matches as possible in 2013-2014 to better their world ranking.

The International Football Federation (FIFA) has earmarked 11 days for friendlies and the AIFF at its Executive Committee decided that the national team should utilise, if possible, all the days, to play meaningful matches against good national teams.

The meeting at the AIFF headquarters here, chaired by president Praful Patel, also fixed Dec 20 as the date for the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and the election.

The meeting attended among others by AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das, senior vice-president Subrata Dutta, vice-president Ankur Dutta and treasurer Mr. Hardev Jadeja, finalised the procedure for the election and to appoint a retired judge of the Delhi High as the returning officer. It has also finalised the electoral college.

The Committee agreed to request the Indian Olympic Association, FIFA and Asian Football Confederation to send Observers for the election.

Another significant decision was to allow the Kerala Football Association to organise the Kerala Premier League if it is conducted in the ambit of the AIFF guidelines.

The national championship for Santosh Trophy will be held in February-March at two venues in Uttar Pradesh and Kerala and the actual dates will be announced shortly.

Another critical decision was to permit the Sports Authority of India teams to participate in the national junior and the sub-junior national championships.

Chief of Referees Development Project Gautam Kar presented a report on the work done by his committee and Patel thanked NCD Solar for sponsoring the project for the next three years.

The Executive congratulated I-League CEO Sunando Dhar for being selected as a FIFA Futuro III Instructor.