New Delhi, July 15 (Inditop.com) The All India Football Federation (AIFF) will receive an annual grant of $120,000 from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the improvement of the game after the executive committee of the Asian body Wednesday included India in its aid programme.
The AFC grant will help the AIFF pay coaches at the junior level and prepare a sound youth development programme. The AIFF is also planning to appoint assistant director of coaching in all the five zones in the country with the help of this grant.
The AIFF also said that it has taken the first step to get back the women’s team on FIFA rankings by deciding to host the under-19 national camp at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) complex in Lucknow.
The camp with 31 players will start Thursday and will run till Aug 15 under Shukla Dutt and Anita Sarkar. The camp is being held to prepare the team for the upcoming under-19 qualifiers for the AFC Championships and the under-20 FIFA World Cup in 2010.
The women’s team was dropped from the FIFA rankings last month for not playing international matches in the last 18 months.