NEW DELHI: The All India Football Federation’s (AIFF) technical committee has recommended that the 3 + 1 (Asian) foreign recruit rule be applicable in the domestic league competitions from the 2021 season.
The Asian Football Confederation has recommended these regulations for participation in AFC Club competitions.
Meanwhile, the committee expressed the view that it is not appropriate to discuss the PIO (persons of Indian origin) / OCI (overseas citizens of India) rule allowing players of Indian origin to represent India till clarity on the matter was provided by the Union Sports Ministry.
There is little doubt though that the AIFF is in favour of allowing OCI / PIOs to play for the national teams.
The inclusion of OCI and PIO has been a topic that has invited a lot of debate in Indian football ever since Stephen Constantine mentioned the need for India to go down that route.
The rules as they stand currently are that PIOs and OCIs are not allowed to represent India unless they give up their foreign citizenship and apply for an Indian passport as the Indian government doesn’t allow dual citizenship.
U17 Women’s World Cup dates
The Committee was also briefed about the postponement of the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup India 2020 by the FIFA-Confederations working group, and that the future dates for the tournament haven’t yet been finalised.
For the record, the AIFF’s technical committee is chaired by Shyam Thapa and includes Henry Menezes (deputy chairman, Prasanta Banerjee, Ganapati Palguna, Pradip Kumar Datta, Ishfaq Ahmed and Sundar Raman (representing Football Sports Development Ltd) and Abhishek Yadav (national team director).
