The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has chalked out a detailed plan for the preparation of the senior women’s football team.

The team coached by Crispin Chettri will participate in the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup to be held in Australia from March 1. The squad has started its camp from Sunday in New Delhi and will then move to Turkey to play some friendlies against top clubs and a tournament between the third week of January and the first week of February.

From Turkey, the squad will head straight to Perth on February 10 for the continental tournament.

“The squad will be in Turkey and Down Under for 47 days before the tournament starts. The team will play around 8-12 matches,” AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey told The Telegraph during an interview on Saturday night.

The women’s team booked a place in the Finals for the first time through the qualification process in July last year. The achievement had taken them to the Fifa ranking of 63 in August, but slipped to 67 in December.

India are in Group C with Japan, Taiwan, and Vietnam, and open their campaign against Vietnam on March 4. They play Japan on March 7 and Taiwan three days later.

Less prize money

Last week, sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya announced that the much-delayed men’s No. 1 league will start from February 14 with all 14 teams participating. The AIFF has set a Monday deadline for the clubs to send the details of the venues where they plan to play their home matches so that it can start working on the schedule.

“Football cannot be stopped due to litigation or financial challenges. We were facing a man-made crisis,” Chaubey said. The former goalkeeper hinted at the legal problems and the failure of the tender process to find a new commercial partner.

“The prize money has been outlined in the approved budget. While it may be lower than in previous editions, our primary focus right now is to restart the league and ensure players get valuable competitive match exposure.”

In the proposal shared with the clubs, the prize money (central and individual) is pegged at ₹5.82 crores.

Failed leadership?

The narrative that was set in the last few months is that the AIFF leadership did not show enough courage, and Chaubey was diplomatic in answering that. “We live in a country of over 1.5 billion people. Each is entitled to his opinion. Social media amplifies every voice. A leader must listen, accept criticism, and remain focused on responsibilities,” he said.

Chaubey also did not believe that there had been more lows than highs since he took over the reins in September 2022.

“Expansion of football activities across the Northeast, Fifa Academies in Bhubaneswar and Hyderabad (for boys and girls), all three women’s national teams qualifying for AFC tournaments on merit, and infrastructure development across multiple states. If these are lows, then I have nothing to say,” Chaubey had AIFF’s achievement list
ready.

“In 2025 alone, the AIFF faced over 25 hearings as respondents across the Supreme Court, high courts, and CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport). Significant resources were spent on legal proceedings, which could otherwise have been used for national team development,” he said.

India’s men’s team, coached by Khalid Jamil, failed to qualify for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup and also lost to Bangladesh, a first in 22 years, in one of the qualifiers.

Tour of NZ

In March 2025, during New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s visit to India, a Memorandum of Cooperation on Sports was signed. Events are lined up this year to celebrate 100 years of sporting contact between the two countries.

Chaubey, whose term ends in September, said India will play international matches against the All Whites in New Zealand “during a Fifa window in the coming months.”