Vision India will be city-centric

NEW DELHI: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has welcomed All India Football Federation's (AIFF) decision to implement the dormant Vision Asia programme at the district or city level instead of the state level as in the past. To begin with, the programme is scheduled to operate out of Mumbai, Pune and Chandigarh. The selection of cities however will have to be ratified by AIFF's executive committee next month. Kochi and Aizawl are other cities which are scheduled to be included in the second phase.

"After doing a SWOT analysis, we are confident that Vision India can be successful in cities and bring about significant change in local football," AIFF secretary Kushal Das told TOI on Thursday. The AFC-driven programme was aimed at developing the game at the grass roots through a 'professional approach' in football administration.

It was launched in 2005 in Manipur and Delhi. It was quite a success in the north-eastern state but was scrapped in the Capital last year after five years of inaction by the local association. In 2009, two more projects in Goa and West Bengal were introduced but they too became failures as the state bodies failed to meet AFC guidelines. The same happened with Tamil Nadu.

AFC Vision Asia director, Michelle Chai, said that AIFF's decision to propose a change in strategy was a positive move.