AIFF's Jiyo campaign

Inept player selection, age-cheating and almost zero activities in most states have jeopardised India’s youth development programmes.

Last year, Jharkhand, who won the U-15 title, was punished for fielding five over-age boys. It was followed by 11 players failing age tests for the Reliance Scholarship Programme.

And we were told that IMG-Reliance is federation’s maa-baap, but the AIFF website won’t tell us this truth.

The federation tried to paint a professional picture on their campaigns, but the junior team’s results in the last couple of years aren’t encouraging.

Nicolai Adam and his U-16 boys should munch some Goa’s famed cashew before stepping out on the field against the United Arab Emirates today in the AFC U-16 Championships because West Asian sides have always been a tough nut to crack.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are their strong opponents in the group.

Former and current AIFF officials will nod their heads in appreciation of federation’s professionalism approach.

Some even twitted federation's hard’ work before the India-UAE match, but the truth is most teams still fake age in different junior tournaments.

The federation's flip-flop on coach selections is another issue. 

The Indian body hardly stick to one. After English, a German is now the current U-16 coach. There’re no senior Indian coaches in any of the national teams. There’re more westerners than the natives in the team management, a practice which is reflected in the clubs as well. 

We’ll have to wait and see if the AIFF’s grass-root activities claimed by them are real or just smart ‘media campaigns’.

Things will become clear after the hosts complete their group matches.

Over to Goa...!