Margao: Making it clear that the state associations were not doing enough for the forward movement of Indian football, AIFF President Praful Patel on Sunday said that a system would be put into place to make them accountable.
"I feel many states are not doing enough. If Indian football as a whole has to grow, we need more wholehearted support and participation," Patel said here after chairing the Annual General Meeting of All India Football Federation here today.
"We will soon be going to rank the states much like the licensing criteria which is in existence for the I-League clubs. There has to be accountability from all the state associations," he added.
Besides Patel, Vice-Presidents Subrata Dutta, Subhash Chopra, Shrinivas Dempo, AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das, Executive Committee Members and top officials of the state associations (except Haryana and Nagaland) also attended the AGM, as did the two affiliated units -- SSCB and RSPB.
"AIFF is the custodian of football in India and we are here to give a direction to Indian football. For that, all the states need to move in sync," Patel said.
He said the idea was to take the game to all corners of India and lauded the supply line of players from the North East region of the country.
"North East is the backbone of Indian football at the moment. Furthermore, if you look at Kashmir, there were around 18000 people cheering for LoneStar FC when they played their home matches in the 2nd Division I-League. The diversification of football is so positive," the AIFF President said.
"One of the primary reasons for bidding for the 2017 U-17 World Cup was to start a new footballing culture in the country. We have made a beginning and hope it will usher in a new era and give a new dimension to the sport in the country."
Patel also stressed on developing an "ecosystem for football".
"We have introduced an U-15 League and the response has been so encouraging. The idea is to develop an entire ecosystem of football. Indian football is not long away; it's on the horizon," he said.
Das highlighted that the AIFF was facing the "transition phase" to produce better players.
"The kids who have been identified at the grassroot level need to be engaged in the youth development programme and we are working on that," he said.
Das also stressed on AIFF's "zero tolerance policy on corruption related to the sport".
"The AIFF has maintained a zero tolerance on corruption.
We have conducted Workshops with FIFA and even have an Integrity Officer on board. Maintaining integrity is not just about fighting match fixing. It percolates down to all the administrators who run the state FA, clubs and the AIFF. In fact, we at AIFF have signed a code of ethics to address the issue," Das said.
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