The All India Football Federation (AIFF) President, Mr. Kalyan Chaubey, after consultations with the Competition Committee and the Secretary-General, Dr. Shaji Prabhakaran, has decided to introduce a National Football Championship for Under-20 boys. The tournament, to be played annually, will be known as the U20 National Football Championship. For the current season, players born on and after January 1, 2005, and not later than December 31, 2007, will be eligible to play. The inaugural championship will be organised in January–February 2024.
While introducing the U20 National Football Championship for boys, Mr Chaubey said, “We are starting this tournament after extensive discussions with our Technical Department, and Competition Committee. Previously, an U21 National Championship used to be organised by the AIFF but was discontinued a few years ago. Our main aim to start this championship is to provide more opportunities to the footballers in the U20 age group, who may not make the team for the Senior National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy for their respective states.”
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Mr. Chaubey also pointed out that since there are two other age groups of National Football Championships in place for Sub Juniors and Juniors, this tournament will prove to be a perfect gateway for the upcoming footballers to enter the world of professional football.
The AIFF Secretary General, Dr Shaji Prabhakaran said, “AIFF introducing the National Youth U20 Championship will further boost youth players, who, unfortunately, could not participate in any competition at the youth level during the COVID period. Therefore, AIFF felt this would be ideal for the growth of football and will provide more opportunities to the youth and encourage the states to raise the U20 team. We have decided to launch the U20 National Championship to further boost our gap in our youth structure pyramid.”
The Chairman of the Competition Committee, Mr Anilkumar said, “It had always been our prime aim to involve a greater number of footballers at the national level and provide them the chance to showcase their talent at a younger age. The U20 National Championship, in the opinion of our committee, will be the perfect platform to achieve this goal. At the same time, it will also help the aspiring players to bridge the gap to reach the senior level from the sub-junior and Junior groups.”
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