AIFF announces minimum wage for women players; Arsene Wenger’s team to visit India in May
The All-India Football Federation (AIFF) on Friday announced a minimum wage for women football players plying their trade in the Indian Women’s League (IWL), as well as a youth developmental platform called ‘Project Diamond’, that would aggregate the best youth players from ISL, I-League and AIFF Elite Clubs, forming a pool of players from whom – they hope – a star player could emerge.
Also announced was a return of PSU clubs to form a semi-professional/ amateur league, one that would open the gates for footballers in the lower rungs to get jobs with PSUs as well as a two-year stop to international players in I-League 2 and state leagues – allowing local players to be given an opportunity to play in central roles across the pitch. The decisions were made in the AIFF executive committee meeting on Friday.
A livelihood on offer
Chief among the proposed changes of the AIFF was to provide every woman footballer in the IWL a minimum wage of Rs 3.2 lakhs per season. AIFF secretary general Shaji Prabhakaran expanded on the reason for the minimum wage, saying that the move would push the football economy upwards, while allowing clubs to grow.
AIFF 4th EC meeting took a few far reaching decisions1. A boost for women’s football minimum secured salary2. More opportunities for Indian players and restrictions on foreign players.3. Launch of Project Diamond@IndianFootball pic.twitter.com/XF0doIQSrL
— Kalyan Chaubey (@kalyanchaubey) April 14, 2023
“We need a better structure for women’s football to grow. So far, the IWL wasn’t a league, it was a tournament,” said Prabhakaran. He then said that starting next season, the IWL will be an eight-team league with home and away games. And the following season will have a ten-team home and away followed the next season where the relegation system will come into play. The 25-26 women’s season will have a four-tier structure.
“With this, those playing for the national team will play a minimum of 25-40 games. Fixing the structure helps them economically grow as well. Without economic value, most of these players don’t continue,” added Prabhakaran.
Wenger-led intervention
Mentions of finding a star player in India were added to the Vision 2047 roadmap press conference earlier in the year and now the AIFF has made it clear that the idea of finding a player that transcends the game in the country, is a priority.
“Project Diamond is to create an iconic star player. The project will be a collaboration between our elite academies, ISL clubs and I-League clubs that invest in youth development. Today we don’t have an elite player development pathway. We want to create this and here the ‘Talent Development Scheme’ of FIFA will come into play. If 20 clubs or academies can be a part of this elite structure, that will give us 600-1000 youth players in one age category,” said Prabhakaran. AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey confirmed that the Arsene Wenger-led TDS will be arriving in India on May 3.
Return of PSUs
The AIFF also announced a 10-team institutional league with home and away games. The idea of the possibility of a Public Sector Undertaking team coming back to football was based on creating a league for semi-professional/ amateur players which would lead to job opportunities for these players on these very teams.
Also, on the cards is a complete grassroots structure overhaul, named ‘Blue Cubs.’ A program that is set to run side–side with Project Diamond, the grassroots program focuses on being the first step in bringing and scouting talent at the youngest ages. This will be done through the involvement of NGOs, clubs and schools and is part of the Vision 2047 promise that states that 25 million children will be provided football education, as part of the FIFA project ‘Football for Schools’.
