FIFA's Chief of Global Football Development Arsène Wenger was in India this week to promote the development of football in the world's second most populous country.
Part of his duties saw the former Arsenal manager launch the "ground-breaking Talent Development Scheme (TDS)" in India.
“I believe that we have an opportunity to change the world of football, and football is the number one sport in the world, and a country like India with [a population of] 1.4 billion, of course, has to exist in this world and that’s why we are here." said FIFA Chief of Global Football Development Arsène Wenger.
Wenger visited a new training academy in Bhubaneswar in the state of Odisha - one part of a national initiative to identify and develop the finest young talent in the country
FIFA launched the TDS in 2022.
"Football has huge potential in India - 18% of the total television viewers are from football in India. In this regard, ISL [Indian Super League] is doing well - it has changed the footballing infrastructure of India in the last 10 years. In this time, I think we are now starting to look for youth, look for grassroots and then focus on how we can grow this into development. I think FIFA’s TD scheme, Talent Development, headed up by Mr. Arsène Wenger and his team, I think it’s going to create a significant change for Indian football and we are coming up with several plans, and projects under this scheme so that Indian boys and girls can get benefit from it." said AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey.
World football's governing body hopes the scheme - by focusing on investing in academies - will "increase global competitiveness in both men’s and women’s national team football so that more countries can shine on the world stage."