Kalyan Chaubey and Udhayanidhi Stalin during the meeting. 
| Photo Credit: X/@Udhaystalin

All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Kalyan Chaubey met Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Tuesday to discuss the roadmap for women’s football development in the State.

“I have spoken with the Dy. CM, who is also the Sports Minister, and we discussed on to take over three districts — Erode and Dindigul are two of them. These districts have over 100 women players aged between 13 and 16. In Chennai alone, there are 20 (women) players above 19 years of age,” Chaubey told The Hindu.

Tamil Nadu won the Senior Women’s National Championship in 2023 and bagged silver at the Khelo India Youth Games this month.

“The AIFF wishes to provide technical support to Tamil Nadu women footballers, and also identify nearly 20 former footballers who have played for a significant number of years and give them coaching education, preferably through an elected member association, and in collaboration with the sports department of the Government of Tamil Nadu,” Chaubey said.

Chaubey was here with AIFF vice-president N.A. Haris. He hoped the elections of the Tamil Nadu Football Association (TNFA) — scheduled on Saturday – would finish quickly.

The TNFA has not had an election since 2018, with its last Annual General Meeting in Salem in 2014, jeopardising men’s and women’s leagues here.

“The AIFF, in collaboration with the Sports Authority of India, conducted 87 leagues in 2023-24 and 63 leagues in 2024-25 under the name ‘Asmita’ across three age groups, U-15, U-17, U-30,” Chaubey said.

“However, none of these leagues took place in Tamil Nadu,” he added.