AIFF names senior women's NFC as Rajmata Jijabai Maharaj National Football Championship

NEW DELHI: The All-India Football Federation has named the Senior Women's National Football Championship as the Rajmata Jijabaisaheb Maharaj National Football Championship and the Final Round of the first edition would be hosted by West Bengal.

The final nod to the suggestion to rename the Women's NFC by the Executive Committee was given by the Competitions Committee of the AIFF, which met virtually on Monday to discuss various issues, including the AIFF calendar for the 2024-25 season.

Anilkumar Prabhakar chaired the meeting, which was attended by the AIFF Secretary General Satyanarayan M., Competitions Committee Deputy Chairperson K. Neibou Sekhose, and members Ajit Banerjee, Hiren Gogoi, Mohammed Shahid, and Mohammed Ali K.

The Committee, in its first order of the day, suggested that the Senior Women’s National Football Championship be renamed the Rajmata Jijabaisaheb Maharaj National Football Championship, as per the decision of the Executive Committee. Subsequently, the Committee also agreed with the suggestion that the U-20 NFC be named the Swami Vivekananda U-20 National Football Championship, the AIFF said in a post on its official website.

The Committee appreciated the Indian Football Association (West Bengal) for hosting the Final Round of the Rajmata Jijabaisaheb Maharaj Senior Women’s NFC, which is tentatively set to begin in the second week of April.

The Competitions Committee also suggested the approval of the calendar presented to it by the Federation, which charted out the various competitions and their tentative windows.

The matter of various teams’ last-minute withdrawal from the Group Stages of the different NFCs was also discussed by the members of the Committee.

It was recommended that the Members Associations that pull their teams out of a competition after confirming their participation would have to serve a one-year suspension from the tournament and have to pay a fine of Rs 1 lakh.