Celebrating his first year as the President of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), Kalyan Chaubey, a former Indian footballer himself, expressed strong optimism for the future of women's football in India. Since taking over as president, Chaubey has been instrumental in steering the federation toward enhancing the quality of women's football in the nation.
"I want to make sure that women's football gets all the facilities that men's football enjoys in India and truly believe we have a better chance of progressing internationally in women's football," Chaubey conveyed in an interview with the AIFF website.
According to him, the senior women's team is on the verge of making significant international strides. "Our women's football team is ahead of our men's team in terms of qualifying for the FIFA World Cup because the women's team is ranked 11th in Asia. If we do just a little bit better we can qualify for the FIFA Women's World Cup," he stated.
Reminiscing about the golden years of Indian football, Chaubey said, "People who have been following Indian Football for decades will say we performed very well internationally in the 1960s-80s and we are not at that level anymore." To bridge this historical gap, India has hosted events like the U-17 Women's World Cup and the senior Asian Cup in recent years, aimed at galvanizing women's football domestically.
Chaubey candidly acknowledged the need to catch up as a footballing nation. "There is definitely a gap. In 1950 we got the opportunity to play in the FIFA World Cup in Brazil but for certain reasons, we decided against participating. After that from 1950 till 1986, there was no communication between FIFA and India," he noted.
He stressed that strengthening relations with international bodies like FIFA is crucial for development. "A national sports federation can only develop if it has good relations with the international body, but we were not linked with FIFA till 1986, which created a gap and we are now working towards closing the gap," he added.
Chaubey also shared a word of caution regarding the state of women's football in India, "I'm a little cautious about women's football in India because there are still many countries that don't compete in women's football, just like India was competing in men's football way before a lot of Asian countries because we were under Britain's rule."
His goal is to prevent history from repeating itself in terms of falling behind. "We do not want to repeat the same mistakes with women's football and hence want to give special attention to women's football in India so that we climb up to the rankings in Asia instead of falling back."
In essence, the AIFF's focus on women's football under Kalyan Chaubey's leadership could potentially alter the landscape of the sport in India, steering it toward a brighter, more competitive future.
