The All India Football Federation's (AIFF) national football academy will be based in Pailan near here, it was announced at a media briefing on Tuesday.
In what seems like a generous barter, the Pailan Group, which will bankroll the Indian Arrows, dropped the issue of players returning to their former clubs for ownership of an AIFF project which was first supposed to be in Goa and then Gurgaon. "The national academy will be based here. And in future, we are looking to get foreign technical support," said AIFF VP Subrata Dutta.
"According to the agreement between us and the clubs, the players had to be released after one year," said AIFF general secretary Kushal Das.
Das said the coach and the technical director of the Arrows would be Indians but the director above them would be a foreigner. Asked about the future of current head coach Desmond Bulpin, Das said: "We have to fit Bulpin in the system." Bulpin is due back in India later this week.