AIFF to host Women’s Football Strategy Workshop on Friday

AIFF Media Team

NEW DELHI: The All India Football Federation will hold a Women’s Football Strategy Workshop tomorrow, Friday, June 21, 2024, in the capital. This event, to be conducted by FIFA expert, Mr. Simon Toselli, is part of the FIFA Women’s Development Programme.

AIFF has also invited candidates from selected state associations, IWL clubs, and guests from the Sports Authority of India (SAI), the United Nations, and UNICEF to discuss various strategies and planning for the development of women’s football in India and formulate the Women’s Football Strategy for the next five to six years.

Mr. Toselli is a FIFA Women’s Football Technical expert, living in Indonesia. He is here in India to support AIFF on the development programme. He has been collaborating with 25 countries on different projects and implementation of strategies (AFC, OFC, CAF and UEFA).

AIFF Acting General Secretary, Mr. M Satyanarayan, said, “I think this is a great opportunity for us to build on the recent increase in the number of women participating in our competitions. We have representatives from all the IWL clubs and about 15 to 18 state associations here, so it will be a good opportunity for us to try and work out a strategy in the presence of the FIFA expert. I am confident the event will produce results that would help us take India’s women’s football further.”

Simon said, “I am very happy to be in India. We have been collaborating with AIFF on establishing their strategy to develop women’s football. We have already defined a key goal, I believe, a very ambitious one, which is to qualify potentially for a FIFA World Cup by 2031.

“Tomorrow, we will have an important workshop, gathering all the key stakeholders of women’s football to discuss the key strategies and directions, and gather their inputs and feedback, so that we can summarise it, integrate it, and later on, finish a well-rounded strategy to develop women’s football in India. We will guide the stakeholders and participants for each pillar tomorrow, so that they can discuss and provide us with suggestions of what could be challenging but achievable goals for each category.

“The workshop is extremely important, and that’s what we have been talking about for a long time with AIFF, to give direction to the game, to provide a player pathway that will provide opportunities to play from every single age, from grassroots to elite, increasing the participation. I think the key challenge will be to structure the pillars well and improve an already efficient competition pathway to have opportunities to play for the key age group that will be important in the years to come,” he told www.the-aiff.com. 

“I think it’s a bright initiative from the Federation that you define key strategic direction and goals that you would like to reach, and then you also hear the key stakeholders to understand the reality. You listen to them as well and see what type of goals they think might be ambitious but as well as realistic. We can progress together, slowly but surely, being ambitious, but not dreaming either, so that we really structure Indian women’s football,” Simon concluded.