The national football championship for the Santosh Trophy, to held in Arunachal Pradesh this season, will be known as the Fifa Santosh Trophy, All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Kalyan Chaubey said on Thursday.
“I am happy to announce that after having discussions with Fifa, the Santosh Trophy will now be known as the Fifa Santosh Trophy. This entails that a team of Fifa officials will come to have a meeting with Arunachal Pradesh officials on the conduct of the tournament,” Chaubey said in an AIFF statement.
“We also expect the Fifa president (Gianni Infantino) to be present for the final on March 9 or 10,” he added.
Chaubey said AIFF officials will hold detailed discussions with Fifa’s chief of global football development and renowned coach Arsene Wenger, who is set to visit India from November 19-23, to chalk out plans for the proposed Fifa-AIFF academies.
“Our plan is to have five academies, one across each zone in India.
“One academy will not be enough, since it can produce only 25-30 players.”
The executive committee also ratified the sacking of Shaji Prabhakaran from the post of secretary general and approved the appointment of M. Satyanarayan as the acting secretary general.
