The AIFF Executive Committee approved the AIFF Competitions Calendar for the season 2024-25 on Tuesday, February 6, 2024. The calendar has mentioned the usual competitions for the new season across men’s and women’s football divisions including ISL, I-League, Durand Cup, IWL etc and age groups tournament. Unfortunately, the federation has once again overlooked the hosting of the third oldest football competition in India which is the IFA Shield.      

In protest, IFA has sent a strong statement to AIFF of not fulfilling their promise of restarting a  heritage tournament of the country. The IFA Shield is one of the oldest tournaments in the world which started in 1893. The competition remains a landmark moment in the freedom movement of India with Mohun Bagan Athletic Club, winning the shield as a native team in 1911 against East Yorkshire Regiment.  

“We are astonished to see that despite our repeated requests for a 90 days window for the State League and a window for IFA Shield, the Federation has completely ignored our proposal”, IFA secretary Anirban Dutta quoted, “ We are disappointed to see that there is no time slot allotted for the IFA Shield in the competitions calendar.”

As per the Calendar, the Durand Cup will start from 26th July, 2024 and will continue till 31st August, 2024 and the I League Third Division will commence from 1st August, 2024 and will culminate on 30th September, 2024. The calendar is also planned in a manner that it is impossible to conduct the Calcutta Football League, Dutta stated.