By IANS,
New Delhi : As part of its Vision India project, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is launching a revamped league in Kerala.
After a meeting between officials of Vision Asia, of which Vision India is a part, and Kerala Football Association (KFA) in Calicut it was decided to launch the ambitious project in November.
“The league will most likely have eight teams and all the participating clubs will have to adhere to the rules of a professional league listed inte Vision Asia project,” said Shaji Prabhakaran, director, Vision India, Thursday.
Some of the stringent rules are not followed by clubs in the I-league like having age-group teams, own football field and an academy.
AFC will organise workshops for the administrators and the officials of the clubs playing in the league. They will have to arrange for clinics for referees and coaches.
A schools league made its debut in Kerala recently with seven of the state’s 14 districts selected for the first edition. Eight schools from each district will be in action in the first year, involving some 2240 boys in the 10-11 age-group.
In a separate development, the start of the league in the adjoining state of Tamil Nadu has been put off until 2009 but the schools league will be up and running as scheduled in October 2008.