AIFF ties up with Ryan Group to roll out football, futsal programmes in schools

The All India Football Federation has partnered with the Ryan Group of Institutions to introduce structured football and futsal programmes in schools, with a special focus on grassroots development, coach education, safeguarding standards, futsal expansion and promoting girls’ participation across age groups.

Hyderabad: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ryan Group of Institutions to introduce structured football and futsal programmes across the group’s schools.

Under this partnership, AIFF will provide comprehensive technical support including designing grassroots football and futsal frameworks, delivering standardised coaching curricula and session plans, conducting grassroots leader courses and safeguarding training for school staff, defining competition formats and progression pathways, deploying technical observers and scouts, monitoring program quality and safeguarding compliance, and permitting use of AIFF branding for participating schools, coaches, and players. Ryan Group of Institutions, will, on the other hand, will offer education for the players in the AIFF TDS centres in Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar.

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This initiative places special emphasis on the development of school futsal and girls’ football, two critical areas for growing the sport at the grassroots level. The partnership will create dedicated programmes and competitions in futsal, making the sport more accessible within school environments, while also establishing structured pathways to encourage and support female participation in football across all age groups.

AIFF Deputy Secretary General Mr. M. Satyanarayan said, “This partnership will help expand structured football programmes in schools and strengthen the development pathway for young players. Working with a large school network allows us to introduce organised training, coach education, and safeguarding standards at the grassroots level.”

Ryan Group of Institutions CEO Mr Ryan Pinto said, “We are pleased to partner with AIFF to bring structured football development into our schools. This collaboration will support student participation in organised sport while helping create opportunities for football training and competition across our network. Through this partnership we would like to focus on futsal at the youth level, and girls’ football.”

The futsal programmes will provide an accessible entry point for students to develop their skills in a fast-paced, technical format, while the enhanced focus on girls’ football will work toward breaking barriers and creating equal opportunities for female athletes to pursue their passion for the sport.