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After becoming the newly elected president of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Friday, Kalyan Chaubey has promised to take the country's sport forward together with all stakeholders involved.
The former Indian goalkeeper defeated former striker Bhaichung Bhutia by a huge margin of 33-1 to become the nation's first footballer-president for the body.
Interview with newly-elected AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey
— Marcus Mergulhao (@MarcusMergulhao) September 2, 2022
“I am not at all surprised. We knew that 33 would vote for us. This is not an election like the Lok Sabha or state assembly where you keep talking to the press and do social media promotion.” https://t.co/PLXavj2B9k
After becoming the AIFF president, Kalyan Chaubey addressed the media at the Indian Football Headquarters and said, "We will engage with all stakeholders to take Indian football forward together.
At the outset, we will work on a short-term plan, and will then meet in Kolkata later this month. We have fought in the Supreme Court together for the last 19 months, and it has taken up a lot of time, effort, and resources from everyone to reach this stage.
"Chaubey also added, "I want to involve all eminent footballers to work on the different challenges Indian football is facing today, and to realise the dreams of the respective states. After 100 days, we plan to unveil the roadmap for Indian football and take the next step."
Since FIFA banned AIFF just a few weeks ago, it will be essential for the future of Indian football that they maintain a good relationship with the world governing football body. With that in mind, newly elected AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey revealed that he received a call from the FIFA president, Gianni Infantino.
Speaking of what he discussed with Infantino, Chaubey added, "He wanted to meet me in Zurich or Doha later this year.
AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey has called for an introductory executive committee meeting on Saturday and is likely to propose Shaji Prabhakaran for the vacant general secretary’s post and IM Vijayan as chairman of the AIFF’s technical committee.https://t.co/erRIaaCT1Z
— Marcus Mergulhao (@MarcusMergulhao) September 2, 2022
I briefed him on the importance of the next few days. We have the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup India 2022 next month and told him that we need to discuss amongst ourselves how we plan to take things forward."
"We will then present our plans to him in detail. The FIFA President also told me that he was impressed with our honourable Prime Minister's interest in Indian Football, and the support Shri Narendra Modi-ji has been extending to the sport."