Arunachal Pradesh Football Association (APFA) in association with NorthEast United FC is going to introduce the first-ever residential football academy in the state. The MoU will be signed soon. Considering the plans, the academy will be launched in Yupia by the end of this year. 

The city has already an Astroturf Golden Jubilee stadium and other infrastructure. APFA secretary Kipa Ajay admitted while speaking over the phone, “Arunachal Pradesh will see a lot of football activities in the upcoming days, especially the development from the grassroute with the introduction of this residential academy.” 

APFA has not been able to develop football infrastructure in a broader way so far. The association will use the only Golden Jubilee Stadium to organize all the final round matches of the 77th Santosh Trophy with the 12 participating teams, conducting three matches every day in the morning, afternoon, and the last one under floodlights. 

Kipa on the issue commented, “It is not that we do not have stadiums. There are stadiums like Rajiv Gandhi Stadium and Nehru Stadium. But those are mainly used for training. More stadiums are being built and we will have football stadiums exclusively within the next couple of years.”

He added, “For the Santosh trophy we will provide two more grounds for the training and all matches will take place at Golden Jubilee Stadium. I feel organizing such a prestigious competition for the first time in Arunachal will give us a big boost to develop a football echo system in the future." 

However, the Indian football fraternity has already raised questions through social media over the allotment of the Santosh Trophy to Arunachal Pradesh where football has not developed yet.