Professional football league kicks off in September

New Delhi, May 23 (UNI) The much awaited Professional FootballLeague (PFL) will kick off on September 30 and a buoyed AIFF asserted that the country's football fortunes will rise with a number of initiatives on the card, besides launching the league.

''Most of the countries in Asia have improved their football standard after starting professioanl leagues. We want the country to be among top six in Asia in FIFA rankings by 2017,'' AIFF General Secretary Alberto Colacao told reporters in a media interaction here today.

Ten teams will take part in the inaugural PFL. Each year two teams will be relegated and four will be added till the total number of teams reaches 16 by 2010.

Eight top teams from the last NFL and the winner and runners-up of second division NFL -- Salgaocar and Viva Kerala -- will take part in the first NFL which will end in February next year.

Mr Colaco also informed that the AIFF is holding a top level international tournament from August 16 to 28 which will be participated by national A teams and sponsored by Oil giant ONGC.

''We are negotiatiing some countries which want to send national A teams. Six to eight countries will participate in the tournament and the venue will be announced soon,'' Mr Colaco said.

He said only national A teams will be invited since matches involving such teams are included in calculating FIFA rankings.

''We want to improve our rankings, so only national A teams will take part in the ONGC international football touirnament. The Asian Games and Olympic qualifiers are not considered as A level competitions and they are not counted in FIFA rankings,'' he informed.

Mr Colaco, however, cautioned that the PFL may not turn out to be a full-fldged one immediately as many clubs were lacking in infrastructure and professionsal set up and hence needed a step by step approach.

''It will not be a sudden change. We have to go step by step and set targets for each year till it (PFL) becomes full-fledged,'' he said.

UNI