All India Football Federation is in line to receive a bounty of upto USD 400,000 from FIFA for setting up four regional training centres in different parts of the country.
"The centres in the four corners of India would be used to train promising youngsters in the finer points of the game as well as referees and coaches to ensure that the standard of football improves in the country," an AIFF spokesperson said.
The Federation is presently in the process of identifying the locations for these proposed centres and the AIFF has written to the various state associations to guage their interest in this regard.
"The proposed locations should have a proper stadium and other infrastructure which could be augmented to world class status with the help of the FIFA grant," the spokesperson said.
The AIFF would recommend the proposed centres to FIFA in September after which the world governing body would send its Development Officers to assess the suitability of the venues.
"The final decision by FIFA is expected to be conveyed in October or November," he said.
The project is part of FIFA's mission to develop the game in various parts of the world. Similar schemes are running in several other countries as well.
The final amount involved in the project is yet to be confirmed and discussions in this regard are on between the AIFF and FIFA's regional development office for Asia located in Sri Lanka.
"The amount is expected to be in the region of Rs 1.6 crore (about USD 400,000)," the official said.
The scheme is separate from Asian Football Confederation's Vision India programme which is running pilot projects in Delhi and Manipur.
