All India Football Federation

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 the Asian Football Confederation and South Asian Football Federation. This federation also manages Futsal and Beach Soccer in India.
It is affiliated to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. India men's and women's football teams are governed by the AIFF, represent India in various international football tournaments.
The AIFF manages, sanctions, conducts, schedules and runs all national level football tournaments and leagues in India, including Indian Super League, I-League, I-League 2, I-League 3, Santosh Trophy, Indian Women's League, Senior Women's National Football Championship, Futsal Club Championship, National Beach Soccer Championship, Super Cup, Youth League and others. The federation also indirectly manages local football competitions through its Member State Associations.
AIFF's Beach soccer and Futsal committees oversee the development of these sports 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 the nine regional football associations met at the Army Headquarters in Shimla. Namely, the nine regional football associations were the IFA, Army Sports Control Board, North West India Football Association, Bihar Olympic Association, WIFA, Madras Football Association, United Provinces Sports Control Board, Mysore Football Association, and Ajmer and Mewar Football 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's 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 withdrew, citing the reason as due to lack of funding. Other reasons given for India's withdrawal included that the AIFF valued the Summer Olympics more than FIFA World Cup at that time and that the players playing mainly barefooted, though the later is just a tale. 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.
FIFA Suspension
On 16 August 2022, the FIFA Council unanimously decided to suspend All India Football Federation with immediate effect due to undue influence from third parties, which constitutes a serious violation of the FIFA Statutes. As a result, India was temporarily excluded from next AFC Asia Cup edition until the suspension got lifted before the tournament began. In response to the ban, AIFF agreed to hold an election on September 2 to restore India's participation in FIFA once it got a new administration. On 27 August, FIFA lifted suspension on India, after the government agreed to end its interference in the AIFF, allowing the AIFF administration to resume activities.
Competitions
International
Intercontinental Cup (senior men's)
Tri-Nation Series (senior men's)
Gold Cup (senior women's)
National
Men's Senior
Santosh Trophy
National Beach Soccer Championship
Men's Youth
Subroto Cup (inter-school)
Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy (U-16)
B.C. Roy Trophy (U-19)
Women's Senior
Senior Women's National Football Championship
Women's Youth
Junior Girl's National Football Championship (U-19/17)
Sub–Junior Girl's National Football Championship (U-16)
Club Level Tournament
Men's Senior
Indian Super League
I-League
I-League 2
I-League 3
Super Cup
Durand Cup
Federation Cup
Futsal Club Championship
Men's Youth
RF Development League (U-21)
Elite League (U-18)
Junior League (U-15)
Sub-Junior League (U-13)
Women's Senior
Indian Women's League
IWL 2nd Division
Current title holders
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 and state leagues
There are currently 38 state associations affiliated with the All India Football Federation.
Full members
Affiliate members
State Leagues list
Men's
Arunachal Super League
Assam State Premier League
Bangalore Super Division (Karnataka)
Calcutta Football League (West Bengal)
Chennai Football League (Tamil Nadu)
FAO League (Odisha)
FD Senior Division (Delhi)
Goa Football League
Gujarat SFA Club Championship
J&K Premier Football League
Kerala Premier League
Lucknow Super Division (Uttar Pradesh)
Madhya Pradesh Premier League
Manipur State League
Mizoram Premier League
Mumbai Football League (Maharashtra)
Nagaland Premier League
Punjab State Super Football League
Rajasthan State Men's League
Shillong Premier League (Meghalaya)
Sikkim Premier Division League
Uttarakhand Super League
Women's
Calcutta Women's Football League (West Bengal)
FD Women's League (Delhi)
Goa Women's League
Karnataka Women's League
Kerala Women's League
Manipur Women's League
Mizoram Women's League
Odisha Women's League
Punjab Women's League
Sikkim Women's Super League
SSA Women's Football League (Meghalaya)
Tamil Nadu Women's League
WIFA Women's Football League (Maharashtra)
Administration
Members and Staff
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
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
Advisory Committee
Shabbir Ali – Chairperson
GP Palguna – Deputy Chairperson
Gurdev Singh
Atanu Bhattacharya
Irungbam Surkumar Singh
Victor Manjila
RP Singh
Arun Singh Rajput
Referee Committee
Sankar Komaleeswaran, Chairperson
Sundarraj Balu, Deputy Chairperson
Ms. Chaitali Paul
Srikrishna Coimbatore Ramaswamy
Mohd. Kamil
Sethumadhavan Chozhakkad
Subrata Sarkar
Other members
Valanka Natasha Alemão – Chairperson, Women's Committee
Thongam Tababi Devi – Deputy Chairperson, Women's Committee
Anil Kumar P. – Chairperson, Competitions Committee
Amit Dey – In-Charge of Futsal
Menla Ethenpa – Finance
Savio Medeira – Head of Coach Education
Dr. Kiran Kumar Kulkarni – Chairperson, Medical Committee
Baichung Bhutia
Malojiraje Chhatrapati
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-General
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, then Congress and later Nationalist Congress Party's politician Praful Patel became president and run it from 2009 to 2022 in an authoritarian manner. He was removed from the position by Supreme Court of India in May 2022 and a three members' committee was appointed to run AIFF. In their decision the judge remarked that the present state of this organisation is not in the interest 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. 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 held 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 then players had the calibre to compete against the top teams of the world. Furthermore, AIFF used to consider the Olympics more important than the FIFA World Cup. According to Basu, by not sending India's team to the 1950 FIFA World Cup, AIFF did huge mistake.
See also
AIFF Player of the Year Awards
Indian football league system
India national futsal team
India national beach soccer team
India national rugby union team
India national rugby sevens team
Rugby India - National federation of Rugby
References
Further reading
External links
AIFF at a glance (archived 22 October 2020)
India at FIFA.com (archived 23 June 2007)
India at The-AFC.com (archived 19 March 2013)
1937 establishments in India
Futsal in India
Sports organizations established in 1937
India