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No dearth of options for Arrows
The All-India Football Federation (AIFF) is yet to take a call on the sponsorship of the Indian Arrows, the youth development side floated by it that just finished their debut I-League. HT reports.
The All-India Football Federation (AIFF) is yet to take a call on the sponsorship of the Indian Arrows, the youth development side floated by it that just finished their debut I-League. "With the situation looking encouraging, we have decided to extend the deadline by a few days. If it was negative, we would have just given up by the May 31 deadline," said a senior AIFF official.
Kolkata's Pailan Group has expressed an interest to come onboard but only in the infrastructural and residential capacity. Two training pitches have been offered along with other facilities including a swimming pool, lodging and food. An undisclosed sum of money is on the cards too.
In addition to the Kolkata-based group, Bharat Forge, a flagship company of the Kalyani Group, has also showed signs of taking over the reins of the club.
"The Pailan Group are very interested. So have many others including Bharat Forge from Pune, Mr Poonawalla who is an industrialist, and also a big multinational agency in New Delhi," the official told HT.
The team, comprising just under-21 players, has a Rs 7 crore annual budget. "Discussions are on and after the AIFF president and general-secretary return from Zurich on June 7, a decision will be put down in black and white," he added.
The AIFF's top officials, Praful Patel (president) and Kushal Das (general-secretary), are currently in Zurich attending the FIFA congress.
