Delhi and TN Projects under AFC`s Vision Asia scrapped

Six years of inaction by the Delhi Soccer Association has led to the city losing a chance to raise its football standard as Asian Football Confederation decided to scrap the Vision India Programme.

New Delhi: Six years of inaction by the Delhi Soccer Association has led to the city losing a chance

to raise its football standard as Asian Football Confederation today decided to scrap the Vision India Programme under AFC`s Vision Asia Project launched here in 2004. Tamil Nadu met the same fate as Delhi and it was also stripped of the Vision India Programme after a meeting of the Vision Asia Committee at the AFC Headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. Delhi Soccer Association Secretary N K Bhatia said the main problem was the delay in amending the constitution in line with the AIFF and AFC. "There were criteria to be fulfilled under the Vision Asia Project. The main issue was in case of change in our constitution. We are doing that shortly," he told reporters. AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam was unsparing to those who failed to implement the project and said Vision Asia needed proactive support from the stakeholders. "Vision Asia cannot work independently and needs to have commitments from Member Associations and city or provincial FAs for its success. If the MAs are not willing to change their statutes and meet the demands of modern football, we have no option but to drop these projects," he said after the brainstorming session in Kuala Lumpur. With the stripping of Vision Asia Projects from Delhi and Tamil Nadu, only Manipur and Kerala remained the two states in the country where a full-fledged programme is being run. The same project was launched in Goa last year while West Bengal is in line for its implementation. In fact, Delhi and Manipur were among the first projects launched in Asia which has 11 different elements for specific focus ranging from marketing, coach education, competition, referees, women`s football, youth and grassroot development. Manipur is running the project admirably well and it has got praise from the AFC itself while Kerala is picking up steam. The project was apparently on track after a delegation of DSA and Delhi government ministers pledged to revive it during a visit to Kuala Lumpur in July 2008 but it has apparently hit a roadblock now. DSA President Subhash Chopra had at that time said his association has formed a committee to review the statutes and bring them in line with the FIFA Standard. Vision Asia, which was started in 2004, is being implemented in six geographical zones -- West Asia, South and Central Asia, East Asia, China and India. China and India were treated as an individual entity as both countries, by virtue of their huge population, presented an immense potential for progress to the top echelons of not just Asian, but international football. PTI