AIFF planning to scrap Santosh Trophy – AIFF general secretary

AIFF general secretary – Kushal Das has said that the federation is mulling over a decision to scrap the national championship – Santosh Trophy as it has lost its relevance.

The report also suggest that AIFF is planning for an Elite residential academy in Goa and Pune.  They are also planning to implement a grass-root programme in Maharashtra with the help from Football Federation Australia.

From now on AIFF would give more impetus to women’s football as women’s football has much better FIFA ranking compared to the men’s team.

On the status of U-17 World cup bid, it was said that AIFF is still waiting for clearances from the government on this. As we reported earlier, the last date to forward our bid is September 30th.

We are guessing these questions were put forth to the AIFF general secretary at the Sportzpower football summit at Delhi.

Read more : AIFF mulling over Santosh Trophy’s future: Secretary

Update : Today, TOI which carried that article (AIFF mulling over Santosh Trophy’s future: Secretary) has put a spin to the whole issue. The new report says that AIFF secretary said that there is a need to make Santosh Trophy contextually viable.

Malayalam news reports are saying that Kushal Das did volt-face over his previous statement which he made during that Sportzpower summit and came out with statement later that he is not against Santosh Trophy and there is no decision to cancel the tournament.

AIFF could change the Santosh Trophy format and is mulling to make it an U23 tournament.  Read more: Santosh Trophy format change on the anvil