AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey meets FIFA President Gianni Infantino in Doha

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) President Kalyan Chaubey and Secretary-General Dr. Shaji Prabhakaran met FIFA President Gianni Infantino at the FIFA Office in Doha, Qatar on Friday to discuss the roadmap for the development of Indian football.

Chaubey, a former goalkeeper who has represented both Mohun Bagan and East Bengal in his playing days, was accompanied by the national federation’s new secretary general Shaji Prabhakaran.

FIFA President hosts first meeting with AIFF President

Chaubey was elected as the president of AIFF after he beat former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia 33-1 in the September 2 elections. The 45-year-old Chaubey, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader from West Bengal, is the first former player to be elected as the head of Indian football’s governing body. A day later long-time administrator Prabhakaran was appointed to the post of secretary general of the AIFF.

After being elected as President on 2 September, Mr Chaubey immediately revealed bold reform plans to develop football in India, with a strong focus on infrastructure, grassroots and women’s football. Speaking after the meeting, President Chaubey thanked Mr Infantino for his words of congratulations and praised the role that FIFA plays in developing football across the globe.

“I received a call from the FIFA President. He wanted to meet me in Zurich or Doha later this year. I briefed him the importance of the next few days. We have the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup India 2022 next month, and told him that we need to discuss amongst ourselves how we plan to take things forward. We will then present our plans to him in detail,” Chaubey said.

Infantino confirmed he will visit India in the near future, it said. “All the possible high-impact projects and programmes concerning Indian football will be finalised before the FIFA President’s visit to India,” the national federation said in the statement.

On August 27, the Bureau of the FIFA Council decided to lift the suspension that was imposed on the All India Football Federation (AIFF). With the suspension lifted, the hosting rights of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022, scheduled to take place between October 11-30,2022, too were restored to the country. President Chaubey ended by revealing his hopes for the upcoming tournament, and how he and the FIFA President discussed harnessing the opportunity it creates across his vast country.

The decision was taken after FIFA received confirmation that the mandate of the committee of administrators that was set up to assume the powers of the AIFF Executive Committee had been terminated and that the AIFF administration had regained full control of the AIFF’s daily affairs. FIFA and the AFC will continue to monitor the situation and will support the AIFF in organising its elections in a timely manner.