Sunando Dhar named I-League CEO

Monday, 30. November 2009 - IndianFootball.Com reporter

The AIFF has named Sunando Dhar as the first-ever Chief Executive Officer of the I-League at its Emergency Committee meeting besides taking other key decisions.

The AIFF Emergency Committee met yesterday in Kolkata to discuss a number of pending issues on the future of Indian football.

The key decision was to name Sunando Dhar, currently General Manager, Sales and Marketing, of Leisure Sports Management; as the new I-League CEO.

Sunando Dhar was preferred over Anil Kamat and Harish Rao.

Sunando Dhar will take over as I-League CEO in January 2010 and has a lot of work ahead of him.

We from IndianFootball.Com wish Sunando Dhar all the best in his new post!


Federation Cup dates

The 31st Federation Cup will now be played from December 20, 2009 to January 3, 2009. It has been deferred by five days and will be played in Guwahati. There has been some criticism for keeping the Assamese capital the venue for the tournament due to a recent bomb blast, but the AIFF didn't make any change.

As in the last few years the champions will take part in the AFC Cup 2010.

The I-League is supposed to restart with Round 9 on January 3, 2010 which is likely to be pushed back by a few days.


National Camps

India is to send their Under-19 for the South Asian Games in Dhaka, Bangladesh in January/February 2010. The camp for the SAF Games will be held in Kalyani, West Bengal from December 4 under the guidance of Colin Toal.

Women's football is a new addition to the South Asian Games and our women's team will prepare in Goa for the football tournament.

The national camp for the 2011 Asia Cup in Qatar will kickoff in June 2010 and continue until the tournament begins in January 2011. The list of players to be called for the camp will be released in January 2010. The AIFF also aims to get the national team to play as many international friendlies in 2010 at home and abroad.


Transfers

As per FIFA guidelines transfers for the 2010/11 season will have to be done online. Players would have to register online for their inter state transfers.


National Academy

AIFF officials this week visited Kalyani and Burdwan both in West Bengal to have a look at potential plots for the National Football Academy.

If the AIFF agrees to the Burdan proposal, then partners would be the West Bengal government as well as German giants Bayern Munich, who both had earlier planned to build an Academy in Burdwan along with private partner Techno India.

But a final decision if to go ahead with the project has not been taken.


Praful Patel meets Kolkata giants

The AIFF president Praful Patel also met officials from East Bengal and Mohun Bagan to discuss issues related to the release of players for the national team.

He later also met the secretary of the Indian Football Association Utpal Ganguli.