AFC selects Kerala, Tamil Nadu for Vision India project

Kannur, Oct 6 (UNI) Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has selected Kerala and Tamil Nadu for its 'Vision India' project, aiming development of football, State Sports Council (SPC) President T P Dasan said today.

Talking to reporters here, he said the announcement was made by the AFC at its recent meeting in Kuala Lumpur, which was attended by a top-level delegation of the Kerala Football Association (KFA), led by President K M I Mather.

KFA and KSC were jointly organising a Vision Kerala project for promoting football in the state by setting up a football nursery, he said. In the first phase seven districts, including Kannur, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Thrissur, Ernakulam, Pathanamthitta and Thiruvananthapuram would be selected and impart training at the grassroot-level, he added.

The project, expected to bring wide changes in football administration in the state, was a follow-up of the AFC's Vision India project, he said.

In the first phase in 2005, Manipur and Delhi were selected for the project and the former had achieved tremendous success in the field, he claimed.

AFC President Muhammed Bin Hammam would inaugurate the first batch of training in January next year and FIFA would test the skills of the students participating in the training.

UNI