AIFF Executive decides

The AIFF Executive Committee met today at the AIFF Football House in Dwarka, New Delhi to discuss pending issues and the situation surrounding the future of national team coach Bob Houghton.


The future of Bob Houghton
The Executive Commitee went through the main points of the Technical Commitee report which heavily criticised Bob Houghton. Thereafter the Executive Committee expressed its concern over the performance of the National Team and also expressed its unhappiness regarding the conduct and the derogatory remarks made by Bob Houghton. The Executive committee has unanimously decided to seek legal opinion regarding its course of action.
This has been done as Bob Houghton's contract had been extended until 2013 only last year and if fired the AIFF would have to pay heavy compensation.

Santosh Trophy
The National Championship for Santosh Trophy 2010/11 will be held in April/May 2011 in the state of Assam. The boarding lodging allowance for players have been increased to from Rs 450 to Rs 700 per player. There will be a cash prize of Rs 500,000 (5 lakhs) and Rs 300,000 (3 lakhs) for the champions and Runners-up.
Holding it parallel to the I-League means that top players won't be playing the state tournament this time around.

Federation Cup
The prize money for the 2011 Federation Cup has been enhanced to Rs 1,5 Milion (15 lakhs) for the winners and Rs 1 Million (10 lakhs) for the Runners-up.

SAFF Championship
Defending champions India will be hosting the upcoming edition of the SAFF Cup, which will be held in December 2011 in Orissa. But the question here is if Orissa can and should play hosts to an international football tournament.

Nehru Cup
The bi-annual tournament will not be held this year and will be conducted as part of the AIFF Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2012.

SAFF Women's Championship
India won the first-ever edition of the SAFF Women's Championship held in Cox Bazar, Bangladesh late last year. All members of the Senior Women's Football team and support staff will be given a cash incentive of Rs 50,000. If I am right, a positive first in Indian football!

New AIFF Referees Committee
The new Referees committee has been constituted and the following are its members: Amit Dev (Chairman), K. Shankar, J. Ravi Shankar, Col (Retd) Gautam Kar, Anthony D'Costa, Gulab Chauhan, Pradeep Nag, Inayutalla Khan.