AIFF to send football coaches abroad on exposure trips to help strengthen grassroot development

New Delhi: Aiming to ramp up its grassroot development programme, the All India Football Federation’s (AIFF) technical committee has handpicked around 45 AFC Pro Licence holder coaches, who will be sent abroad on exposure trips. This is being done to strengthen the setup in age-group football and field stronger youth teams in tournaments. “The technical committee’s chairman (Shyam Thapa) has already selected 40-45 coaches, all AFC A and B Licence holder. [caption id=“attachment_3147650” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The AIFF logo. Twitter/@IndianFootballTeam[/caption] “They will be sent on exposure trips to countries with whom we have MoU such as Germany and Japan. The idea is to employ them as coaches of youth teams in the future,” said Henry Menezes, Thapa’s deputy in the panel. Menezes is a former international and CEO of Western India Football Association (WIFA). He said the youth set-up in Indian football will be divided into many zones and the coaches will be entrusted with the responsibility to train them. The aim is to have around 20 players in each zone. Menezes was a part of the technical committee meeting held in Mumbai on Wednesday, to discuss the future of national team coach Stephen Constantine. Indian Arrows coach Luis Norton de Matos was also present in the meeting. Matos, who was the India coach for the U-17 World Cup last year, has expressed satisfaction with Arrows’ performance so far in the I-League, considering they are playing in their maiden season with a mix of U-17 and U-19 players. After India’s spirited show in the U-17 World Cup, the AIFF had asked Portuguese coach Matos to continue beyond his tenure. His contract will next come up for renewal in March.