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The All India Football Federation (AIFF), on Thursday, February 29, 2024, announced the commencement of the Men’s National Football Championship (NFC) for Under-20s.
The newest age competition in AIFF’s calendar for the year 2023-24 will start in April and be known as ‘Swami Vivekananda U20 National Football Championship’. The championship will be held at the sprawling Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama in Narainpur, Chhattisgarh having an in-house full-fledged football pitch, training facilities and residential area.
Following the discontinuation of Under-21 competition during Covid-19, AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey, last July, had expressed the urgent need to restart the competition in senior boys’ category to fill in the existing void at this level.
Kalyan Chaubey said, “I’m pleased to see the Under 20 NFC competition been brought back into our football calendar this year, thus bridging a wide gap which was in existence last few years in our youth structure pyramid between U17 Youth League to Santosh Trophy.
“We felt the need to have the competition in Under 20, to put the building blocks in place for our footballers’ gradual progression into senior competitions and to create a pipeline for Asian Games U23 selection. The U20 group competition is very crucial in a player’s life cycle to step into professional career. With the U20 competition back in recognition, the youth structure slabs from Sub Junior to Santosh Trophy gets completed,” added Mr. Chaubey.
As a next step, AIFF will invite all its State member associations for participation in the U20 National Football Championship.
