A day after the Asian Football Confederation decided to scrap the ambitious Vision India programme in New Delhi and Tamil Nadu, the All India Football Federation expressed regret that the state associations failed to comply to the AFC norms.
AFC president Mohamed Bin Hammam, on Tuesday, said Vision Asia could not work in isolation and needed active support from the respective state associations. The main grouse of the AFC, which also scrapped Vision Asia programmes in Vietnam (Hanoi), Uzbekistan (Bukhara and Tashkent), national level projects in Uzbekistan and Bahrain, and suspended the national level projects in Kyrgyzstan, Maldives and Oman, was that the state associations didn’t amend their constitution to conform to Fifa, AFC and AIFF regulations and failed to start a proper city/state league. “It is unfortunate that the Vision India-Delhi and Vision India-Tamil Nadu projects were dropped. The main reason for dropping these projects was non implementation of some of the AFC Vision requirements: bringing the association constitution in line with the Fifa, AFC and AIFF constitution and starting a proper state/city league,” AIFF general secretary Alberto Colaco said.
The Vision India programme in Delhi was launched in 2004 but the indifferent attitude of the Delhi Soccer Association saw the capital lose out.
With Delhi and Tamil Nadu stripped of the Vision Asia projects, only Manipur and Kerala are the two states in the country where a full-fledged programme is being run. The Vision Asia project was launched in Goa last year, while West Bengal is next in line.
Houghton tips English coach for Under-19
I-League team
National team coach Bob Houghton has recommended fellow Englishman and current Philippines national team manager Desmond Bulpin to coach the under-19 team which will compete in the I-League next season.
The AIFF will take a call on Houghton’s recommendation in its executive committee meeting next month, president Praful Patel said.
“Houghton has recommended Desmond Bulpin’s name to coach the under-19 team in next season’s I-League. However, we are yet finalise a name,” Patel said.
Bulpin, who has a one-year contract with the Philippines national team till November, was former manager of Queens Park Rangers.