Is the AIFF Failing Women’s Football in the Country?

In 2009, FIFA dropped the Indian national women’s team from its official rankings. The decision, taken due to the team’s inactivity for a period of over 18 months, cast a dark cloud over the sense of optimism that had crept into the football community, and a hope that India was finally on the cusp of arriving as a major player on the international stage. The men’s team was scheduled to return to the Asian Cup after a period of 15 years, and players like Sunil Chhetri, Subrata Pal, Jeje Lalpekhlua and others were attracting the attention of European clubs.

In 2010, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) signed a 15-year commercial deal with IMG Reliance worth Rs 700 Crores–handing over all commercial rights to Indian football to the corporate whilst also inviting them to restructure the game. The deal’s marquee project, the Indian Super League, is steadily building revenue streams and a dedicated fan base, with all parties making huge investments into the league. However, it also serves to highlight the AIFF and IMG-RIL’s apathy towards the women’s game. According to the AIFF’s Strategic Plan Budget (2014-2017), the amount of money spent by the federation on the women’s game has been declining over the years–from Rs 5.53 Crores in the 2014-15 season to Rs 2.39 crores in the 2017-18 season.

At the FIFA Women’s Regional Development Seminar and India Development Workshop in 2014, AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das outlined the federation’s short-term goals for the women’s game, stating that they aimed for the women’s national team to be in the top 40 and top eight of the FIFA World Rankings and Asian Rankings respectively. Four years later, the team is ranked 60th in former and 13th in the latter.

With its strategic partnership with IMG-RIL at a critical juncture, it’s necessary to take stock of what exactly AIFF has planned for Indian women’s football.

“There needs to a concerted effort to provide structure and opportunities for more women to play football,” says Jyoti Ann Burrett. Part of the national team set-up since 2013, Burrett has first-hand experience of the way the women’s game has been developing in the country. “State and grassroots-level competitions offer an opportunity to develop a larger pool of players. Often, these teams are more accessible to girls who otherwise don’t get permission to play far away from home. The budget allocations need to reflect that.” Burrett is also one of the driving forces behind the Delhi Women's Football Players Association (DWFPA), an organisation that’s helping players in the National Capital Region (NCR) by providing a structured training routine. “While the facilities provided to players have improved by leaps and bounds in my time with the Indian and FC Pune City (Women's) squads, there is still a long way to go before we start seeing a definite improvement in the women’s game as a whole.”

In 2016, the inaugural edition of the Hero Indian Women’s League (IWL) kicked off in Cuttack, Odisha. The first season saw six teams participate, with FC Pune City and Aizawl FC representing the ISL and I-League respectively. Originally, the AIFF had invited all ISL and I-League clubs to field teams in the tournament, but the additional expenditure in a sport with limited revenue streams scared them off. “Every club in the country is losing money,” says Priyansh, a journalist who covered the teething problems facing the IWL for Nation of Sport. “There’s no coherent plan in place for the women’s game. Besides the scheduling haphazard, there is almost no support from the federations for the clubs that do participate.”

In the piece, titled ‘Ladies Of The Fields: Will The Indian Women’s League Find Its Rightful Place?’, Priyansh managed to produce the most comprehensive, publicly available document about the state of the women’s game in the country so far. The ad-hoc nature of the way the AIFF conducts its operations ensures that there is next to no information available in the public domain. “Most clubs that do participate in the IWL are small and operate as ad-hoc teams,” he says. “The problem lies at the grassroots–if they expected ten teams to participate in the IWL, that means at least 150-180 players would have to be scouted and drafted into the league. Right now, the only person scouting players on a national scale is Maymol Rocky, the national team manager. She’s performing the role of the entire backroom team on her own.”

ISL clubs pay IMG-RIL an estimated annual franchise fee that ranges between Rs 9-18 crores to be a part of the league. With a long-term contract in place, and a commitment to develop all aspects of the game in the country, we must also question what IMG-RIL is doing with this money and how it’s being invested in the development of the game. Would the women’s game be better served if a portion of this fee was waived in order for the ISL clubs to start investing in women’s football? The AIFF had previously floated the idea of operating a women’s squad as a mandatory requirement in its licensing criteria for clubs, but, without putting concrete plans in place, most of them are not willing to take up the extra cost.

Certain State Football Federations have taken it upon themselves to provide regular opportunities to women players in the country. Manipur, Odisha and Goa have their own tournament, and the recently rebranded Football Delhi (formerly the Delhi Soccer Association) also plans to launch an Under-19 and Under-16 Women’s League. The AIFF, for its part, has constituted a sub-committee, headed by Sara Pilot, that aims to produce a cohesive roadmap for the women’s game in the country soon. However, the question facing the AIFF is this–In light of the many false dawns that the federation has overseen and the subsequent disappointments that players and fans alike have had to face, at what point do we start to question the wisdom of the people governing the game and holding them accountable?