All India Football Federation

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) is the national governing body of football in India. It is a member of FIFA, the international governing body of football and affiliated to Asian Football Confederation.

It is affiliated to Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of Government of India and a member of South Asian Football Federation. AIFF's teams India men's and women's football teams represents India in men's and women's international football tournaments, friendlies respectively.

The AIFF manage, sanctions, conducts, schedules and runs all national level football tournaments and leagues in India, including major tournaments Indian Super League, I-League and Super Cup. The federation also indirectly manages local football competitions through its member state associations.

AIFF's Beach soccer and Futsal sport commitees oversees development of Beach soccer and Futsal sport in India.

History

Before the formation of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), the ''de facto'' ruling body for association football in India were the Indian Football Association (IFA). The IFA was founded in 1893 and ran the game in the Bengal region. The federation was mainly governed by Englishmen and served as the most powerful football body in the country during the early 20th century.

Efforts to form a countrywide football federation were started in 1935 by the IFA when the federation, as well as seven other associations, met at a conference but no consensus could be reached. After differences in opinions and other conflicts were resolved, a meeting was conducted in March 1937 which would serve to be the beginning of the start of the AIFF. The AIFF was officially founded on 23 June 1937 after representatives from six regional football associations met at the Army Headquarters in Shimla. Namely, the six regional football associations were the IFA, Army Sports Control Board, United Provinces, the North West India Football Association, the Bihar Football Association, and Delhi Soccer Association.

After the launch of the national football federation, the idea of an India national football team did not gain much momentum until after India gain independence in 1947. Select Indian teams did participate in tours of Australia, Burma, Afghanistan, and South Africa but none were officially part of the national team. In 1948, one year after independence and 11 since forming as a football association, the AIFF gained affiliation with FIFA, the governing body for football around the world. Later that year, the national team was officially formed and participated in their first official tournament, the 1948 Summer Olympics.
In 1950, the national team automatically qualified for the 1950 FIFA World Cup which was to be held in Brazil after all the teams in India's qualification group withdrew. However, prior to the tournament, India themselves withdrew from the World Cup with the AIFF citing the reason as due to lack of funding. Other reasons given for India's withdrawal included the players playing mainly barefooted and that the AIFF valued the Summer Olympics tournament more than the FIFA World Cup at the time. In 1952, during the Olympics in Finland, India was defeated in the first round by Yugoslavia 10–1. This defeat made the AIFF make it mandatory for players on the national team to wear football boots. In 1954, the AIFF played an active role in promoting football in Asia when they were one of the founding members of the Asian Football Confederation. India took part in four straight Olympic football tournaments between 1948 and 1960 but have failed to qualify since. In 1985, India started to participate in World Cup qualifiers again but have failed to make it to the tournament.

In 1977, the AIFF started the Federation Cup which was the first club based national tournament in the country. The Santosh Trophy, the national tournament for state teams, was started in 1941.

In 1996, the AIFF began the first national league in the country, the semi-professional National Football League. Before this, most clubs played in state leagues or select nationwide tournaments.

In 2006, the AIFF reformatted the league as the I-League in an effort to professionalise the game. However, during the following seasons, the league suffered from a lack of popularity due to poor marketing.

In September 2006, the AIFF signed a 10-year television and media contract with Zee Sports. The deal would make Zee broadcast the National Football League, later the I-League, and other tournaments organised by the AIFF and selected India's international matches. However, in October 2010, the deal between the AIFF and Zee Sports was terminated after differences between both parties related to payment and marketing of football in India.

On 9 December 2010, it was announced that the AIFF had signed a new 15-year, ₹700 crore deal with Reliance Industries and the International Management Group.

Competitions

International

* Intercontinental Cup (senior men's)
* Subroto Cup (inter-school boys')
* AIFF Youth Cup (U-16)

Men's

* Indian Super League
* I-League
* I-League 2
* Super Cup
* Durand Cup
* Santosh Trophy (inter-state)
* Futsal Club Championship

Women's

* Indian Women's League
* Senior Women's National Football Championship (inter-state)

Men's youth

* RF Development League (U-21)
* Elite League (U-18)
* Junior League (U-15)
* Sub-Junior League (U-13)
* B.C. Roy Trophy (U-19) (inter-state)
* Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy (U-16) (inter-state)

Women's youth

* Junior Girl's National Football Championship (U-19)
* Junior Girl's National Football Championship (U-17)
* Sub–Junior Girl's National Football Championship (U-16)

Current title holders

State leagues list

Men's

* Assam State Premier League
* Bangalore Super Division
* Calcutta Football League
* Chandra Memorial League
* Chennai Football League
* FAO League
* FD Senior Division
* Goa Professional League
* Indrajit Namchoom Arunachal League
* J&K Premier Football League
* Kerala Premier League
* Lucknow Super Division
* Madhya Pradesh Premier League
* Manipur State League
* Mizoram Premier League
* Mumbai Football League
* Nagaland Premier League
* Pune Football League
* Punjab State Super Football League
* Rajasthan State Men's League
* Shillong Premier League
* Sikkim Premier Division League
* Uttarakhand Super League
* Kolhapur Sports Association League

Women's

* Calcutta Women's Football League
* FD Women's League
* Goa Women's League
* Karnataka Women's League
* Kerala Women's League
* Manipur Women's League
* Odisha Women's League
* Punjab Women's League
* SSA Women's Football League
* Tamil Nadu Women's League
* WIFA Women's Football League

National teams

Men

* India national football team
* India national under-23 football team
* India national under-20 football team
* India national under-17 football team
* India national beach soccer team
* India national futsal team

Women

* India women's national football team
* India women's national under-20 football team
* India women's national under-17 football team

Affiliated state federations

There are currently 37 state associations affiliated with the All India Football Federation.

Administration

Executive committee

Board of directors

The following are on the board of the directors at the AIFF.

Technical committee

* IM Vijayan – Chairperson
* Monoranjan Bhattacharya – Deputy Chairperson
* Eugeneson Lyngdoh
* Climax Lawrence
* Harjinder Singh
* Arun Malhotra
* Pinky Bompal Magar

League committee

* Lalnghinglova Hmar – Chairman
* Santanu Pujari – Deputy Chairman
* Arif Ali
* Amit Chaudhary
* Dr. Reginold Vargese
* KP Singh
* Kiran Chowgule
* M Satyanarayan
* Nizamuddin

Development committee

* Avijit Paul – Chairman
* Mulrajsinh Chudasama – Deputy Chairman
* Vijay Bali
* Ratankumar Singh Moirangthem
* S. Dhanasegar
* Muhammed Rafeek TKM
* Liaqat Ali
* Jesiah Villavarayar
* Mohd. Shahid

Beach Soccer committee

* Jignesh Patil – Chairman
* KI Nizammudin – Deputy Chairman
* Anup Patra
* Bruno Coutinho
* Md. Ikram
* Upen Patel
* Dilip Singh Shekhawat
* Sanjay Mehshack
* Santosh Kumar
* G.P. Palguna

Futsal committee

* Vijay Bali – Chairman
* Amit Khemani – Deputy Chairman
* Kuljit Singh
* Lalrengpuia
* Syed Husnain Ali Naqvi
* Ravinder Prasad Singh
* Naresh Singh Rana
* S Achu
* BS Mehra
* Chung Chung Bhutia
* Mohammad Shahid Jabbar

Other members

* Shabbir Ali – Chairperson, Advisory Committee
* Valanka Natasha Alemao – Chairperson, Women's Committee
* Thongam Tababi Devi – Deputy Chairperson, Women's Committee
* Anil Kumar P. – Chairperson, Competitions Committee
* Amit Dey – In-Charge of Futsal
* Malojiraje Chhatrapati
* Menla Ethenpa – Finance
* Baichung Bhutia
* GP Palguna
* Mohan Lal
* K. Neibou Sekhose
* Deepak Sharma
* Syed Imtiaz Husain
* Syed Hasnain Ali Naqvi

Notes:

Past office bearers

Presidents

The following is a list of presidents of AIFF:

Secretaries

The following is a list of secretaries of AIFF:

Controversies

Politicians are highly involved in AIFF. From 1988 to 2009, Congress party's Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi was president of AIFF. After him his fellow, Congress party's politician Praful Patel became president and run it from 2009- 2022. He was removed from the position by Supreme Court of India in May 2022 and appointed 3 member commitee to run AIFF. In their decision Judge remarked that the present state of this organisation is not in the intrest of proper governence. Patel remained president of the AIFF for 16 years, without any tenure limit. He held the position in 3 terms. As per AIFF, some people dictate Indian football who serve themselves in the expenses of football sport and players.https://www.indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/praful-patel-aill-india-football-federation-sc-7927125/lite/ According to The Telegraph newspaper's article, there is rampant and open corruption in the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and due to lots of sponsor do not want to sponsor AIFF or associated with it. And Players, coaches and officials related to football feels that the AIFF's attitude and management of this organisation have to be change, otherwise football will not improve in India.

As of 6 October 2021, since 2020 AIFF avoided elections to new president and office holders. Praful Patel is president of AIFF since 2009 and holded president's post even after his legal presidency period ended.

Multiple times, FIFA have accused AIFF of outside influence in it. On 15 August 2022, FIFA suspended the federation for violating its statutes on third-party interference. India was stripped off its hosting rights for international football tournaments, including the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup scheduled for October 2022. The Suspension was lifted on 27 August 2022. As a result, 2022 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup scheduled for October 2022 were held as planned.

This organisation is often accused for neglecting women's football.

The Indian men's national football team has never played in the FIFA World Cup but India did qualify for the 1950 FIFA World Cup which was held in Brazil. In 1950 FIFA World Cup qualification, the other teams in India's qualification group withdrew due to various reasons and India qualified as the remaining team. However, the Indian team did not participate and withdrew their name. A common myth is that India withdrew and didn't participate because FIFA did not allowed Indians to play football barefoot. According to author and sports journalist Jaydeep Basu, this is completely wrong and India did not participate because AIFF did not believe that its players had the calibre to compete against the top teams of the world. Furthermore, AIFF used to consider the Olympics to be more important tournament than the FIFA World Cup.

See also

* AIFF Player of the Year
* Indian football league system

References

External links

Official AIFF website

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:All India Football Federation

1937 establishments in India

Futsal in India
Sports organizations established in 1937
Sports governing bodies in India
India
Football in India
National members of FIFA