The All India Soccer Federation (AIFF) on Friday introduced a revamp of the prevailing girls’s soccer construction in India in addition to granting a minimal wage to those that compete within the Hero Indian Ladies’s League (IWL). Going ahead, It is going to be obligatory for the highest eight taking part groups within the IWL to have a minimal of 10 Indian gamers on an annual contract price a minimal of ₹3.2 lakhs, AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey mentioned. The choice was taken on the federation’s government committee assembly earlier within the day.
Whereas the upcoming (2024-25) IWL season may have 10 groups within the prime division adopted by two different divisions, the 2025-26 season may have a four-tier league with the final tier being the state leagues throughout the nation.
“We imagine these choices will entice extra ladies to play soccer and can assist the expansion of the ladies’s sport. We would like girls’s soccer in India to succeed in the worldwide degree,” Chaubey mentioned. Plans are additionally afoot to introduce a college league to run parallel with the IWL.
“We wish to begin with 8-16 groups. We’re in contact with a number of personal universities to be part of this league and we’re assured to start out it this season. It is going to be a possibility for our girls footballers to be related to a college and possibly improve their training,” AIFF secretary basic Shaji Prabhakaran mentioned.
The senior males’s group, in the meantime, may have a busy worldwide season beginning with the Inter-Continental Cup in June until the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers in November and December.
The Merdeka Cup, an erstwhile common characteristic within the males’s calendar, shall be again this yr alongside Kings Cup in Bangkok.
The AIFF has additionally determined to bar overseas gamers from taking part within the I-League Division 2 together with outstanding state leagues resembling Calcutta Soccer League (CFL), and Goa League, Chaubey introduced.
Moreover, the federation has set in movement Challenge Diamond, a participant growth programme for elite footballers according to FIFA’s Expertise Growth Scheme (TDS). All growth wings of Indian soccer, together with these of ISL and Hero I-League golf equipment and elite academies, are anticipated to be part of it. A FIFA delegation to chalk out the modalities of the venture will arrive in India on Might 3.
A complete grassroots programme — Blue Cubs — was additionally launched with the goal of strengthening the senior males’s group. The programme shall be performed in collaboration with the federal government, NGOs, golf equipment and different entities. The AIFF additionally launched a ten-team Institutional League for beginner groups that shall be performed on a home-and-away foundation.