Indian Women’s League likely to involve 24 teams
AIFF is likely to make the Indian Women’s League a 24-team competition next season onwards to help women’s football progress faster in the nation. The Federation’s General Secretary also said that they are eyeing a spot in the 2022 Asia Cup while also targeting the Asian Games in next few years.
After the considerable rise of the national women’s football team on the global stage hit headlines, the country’s footballing federation has decided to respond to it by providing the players with an even bigger platform. Currently, the team sits at 57th in the FIFA rankings, a significantly better rank than their male counterparts. Moreover, the Blues have won 12 of their last 18 games and are getting better with each match.
Currently, the Indian Women’s League involves only 12 teams. The third season of the tournament was held earlier this year and lasted for a dismal period of only 19 days. A longer tournament with a wider scope for participation will allow higher levels of competition and give the players crucial playing time at the highest level in the country.
"A new format is being planned by Doru Isac, the AIFF technical director, along with the league department. The idea is to expand the OWL to a 24-team league next season, where every team will play at least 18 matches,” AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das told TOI.
The team came into the limelight after it ended up defeating Nepal and Indonesia by a margin of two goals in both the games, before earning a hard-fought 3-3 draw in the Round 2 of Olympic qualifiers.
“Its very unlucky that we couldn't make it to Round 3 of the Olympic qualifiers on goal difference. But Round 2 was the best performance ever by any Indian women's national team,” said former India footballer and AIFF national team director Abhishek Yadav.
The team has been through many ups and downs ever since it came into existence nearly four decades ago. It is yet to qualify for any Olympics or FIFA Women’s World Cup but has participated in the Asian Cup as many as eight times. However, their last appearance came way back in 2003 in Thailand but the Federation has high hopes on them.
"The AIFF's short-term goal for women's football is to quality for AFC Women's Asian Cup 2022 as the qualifiers are scheduled to start next year. The long term goal at this moment is to obtain a podium finish in Asian Games 2026,” Das concluded.
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