All India Football Federation has tied up with Japanese Football Association to develop football in India. Both the federations signed a Memorandum of Understanding to seal the deal.
The MoU was signed by the presidents of both the associations Praful Patel and Daini Kuniya.
Patel said the MoU with the JFA will enable India to seek help from Japan on technical matters. He also said that many exchange programmes by various age-group teams will take place.
"It is a historic MoU. Japan is one of the best examples for Indian football to follow. The way Japan developed its football, they have set an example which India can follow. Not many years ago, they were not so powerful before making a transformation to become a leading football country in Asia and an important one in the world. We can follow their footsteps," he said.
"We will have cooperation at the technical level and our Under-17 team will visit Japan in the coming years regularly because we need to prepare a strong national team for the 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup. We will also focus on the women's football," he added. The FIFA U-17 event will be held in India.”
JFA prez Daini Kuniya said that he is impressed with the rise in popularity of the game in India and wants to improve the standard of football in India.
"It's a valuable partnership for us. Our focus of areas will be youth and grass-roots development," JFA boss Kuniya said through a translator.
"We are quite impressed with the rapid increase of popularity of football in India."
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