AIFF to launch international tournament in August

The All India Football Federation will launch a new invitational annual international tournament, named the Champions Cup, in August this year.

The multi-continent fourteam tournament will see participation from Asia, Africa, North America countries and hosts India.

This tournament, awaiting world body Fifa’s recognition, will replace the now-defunct Nehru Cup, which was last held in 2012.

The AIFF said hosting the tournament would serve the purpose of providing international matches to the national team.

“The AIFF plans to introduce a new invitational multi-continental Champions Cup competition in August 2017. The newly proposed Champions Cup will be an annual affair played between four countries, starting 2017,” the national body said in a release.

“AIFF, with inputs from its marketing partner FSDL, has studied the current national team’s engagement and have devised a strategic national calendar programme to ensure the senior national team train and play more often through the year, with special attention to increase the number of home games for the national team.”

AIFF general secretary Kushal Das said the federation were communicating with several football associations from Asia, Africa and North America.

“The introduction of the Champions Cup is a result of conscious efforts at our end to ensure the national team receives enough training camps, international friendlies as well as competitive games. We envision to consistently climb the Fifa ranking charts by playing against good opponents.”

The body believes the tournament could be a springboard for the national team — currently ranked 132nd — to vault into top 100 in the rankings by the end of the year, particularly with the team winning 11 of their last 13 matches under head coach Stephen Constantine.