Xtra Time Web Desk : The Indian Football Association (IFA) is planning to start the upcoming football season from the third week of August. The new football season will begin with the different leagues across divisions followed by the IFA Shield. The IFA secretary Joydeep Mukherjee on Friday summoned a few former footballers like Subrata Bhattacharya, Bhaskar Ganguly, Mihir Basu, Prashanta Banerjee, Aloke Mukherjee ans Shishir Ghosh to seek their opinions before starting the new football season. The idea is to see football back in the maidan.
The IFA will take all the precautionary measures and adhere to all the health protocols set by the Government of West Bengal before starting the new football season. The state association is keeping a track with the AIFF football calendar as they want to hold the matches only when there are no tournaments scheduled by the Federation.
The only concern for the IFA though is the availability of the grounds as the cricket season will also begin almost at the same time. The IFA secretary will have a word with the CAB officials if they can allow the division matches to be staged during that time.
IFA is also mulling the idea of having the league matches without any foreigners as no one knows whether the Government of India will allow foreign footballers to come and play in the league. If a situation does arise where the foreigners are not given permission to come and play then IFA will go ahead with the league without the foreign players. The objective will be to give more opportunities to local talents wherein they can earn a living as well.