New Delhi: Keen on restructuring and laying a path for the development of state associations, All India Football Federation (AIFF) is launching a pilot project in seven states.

The project kicks-off in Kolkata with the Indian Football Association (IFA) and would be followed by visiting the other five provisional venues for the FIFA 2017 Under-17 World Cup namely in New Delhi, Mumbai, Goa, Kochi and Guwahati. In addition, Mizoram Football Association (MFA) has also been included.

AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das said that the project is part of the Four Years ‘AIFF Strategic Plan’.

“As per the Four Years Strategic Plan created with the help of FIFA, it was clear that the capacities of the state associations need to be improved significantly for the development of Indian football. Accordingly it was decided that the capacities of the six state associations which are the provisional venues must be enhanced to start off with,” Das said.

“Furthermore, as MFA has put in a tremendous effort to start the revolution at the grassroots and youth development, they too have been included as part of the development plan.”

The initiative is fully supported by FIFA.

“The onus is now on the respective state associations to ensure they work together with FIFA and AIFF for the development of Indian football,” added Das.

AIFF had in the first week of July advertised positions for the post of Technical Officers (in all the seven associations) and Director, Marketing and Operations (except for Mumbai), the response of which has been overwhelming and interviews are to be conducted shortly.

AIFF would be paying the salaries for aforesaid posts for a year, guiding and expecting the associations to become self sustainable.

The entire plan has been endorsed by the AIFF Executive Committee and AIFF and FIFA would be conducting visits to each of the selected venues to discuss the implementation of the plan. The stakeholders include the local associations, government, top division clubs and ex-players.