KOLKATA: The crisis in Indian men's football may be in the spotlight right now but away from the limelight, the Indian women's football team has been regularly reaching milestones, the latest being their six-rung climb in Fifa rankings, to the 57th position, in July.

And their 66.7% win record in the first 18 matches played since January has forced the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to finally take notice and the body has come up with a set of plans to further the cause of women's football in the country.

The foremost among them is the proposal to increase the duration of the Indian Women's League (IWL), which was started in 2017. The third edition of IWL, played in May this year with 12 teams, lasted for a meagre 19 days. But that sad scenario is expected to change from next year.

"A new format is being planned by Doru Isac, the AIFF technical director, along with the league department. The idea is to expand the IWL to a 24-team league next season, where every team will play at least 18 matches," AIFF general secretary Kushal Das told TOI.

A longer league is bound to be helpful to the footballers by providing the opportunity for more competitive playing time, something that the women have long been asking for. The AIFF has also been working to give women more international fixtures, especially in the last 2-3 years. And the fruits of that exposure was evident in their show at the Round 2 of Olympic qualifiers, where they beat Nepal and drew 3-3 against Myanmar in their last match.

"It's very unlucky that we couldn't make it to Round 3 of the Olympic qualifiers on goal difference. But Round 2 was the best performance ever by any Indian women's national team," said former India footballer and AIFF national team director Abhishek Yadav .

In view of the improving performance, the Indian football body has also devised short and long-term goals for the Indian women's team.

"The AIFF's short-term goal for women's football is to qualify to AFC Women's Asian Cup 2022 as the qualifiers are scheduled to start next year. The long-term goal, at this moment, is to obtain a podium finish in Asian Games 2026," said Das.

A big boost for women's football is expected to come in the hosting of the Fifa U-17 Women's World Cup in India next year and the AIFF is working to make it as successful as the men's version hosted in 2017.

Elaborating on the plan, the AIFF general secretary said: "We are looking at this tournament with a lot of aspirations as it's going to be the second Fifa World Cup hosted by us in three years, which is great in terms of Indian football.

"We have a detailed exposure and camp plan for the U-17 team, including a four-nation tournament approved by the government. A budget of a little over Rs 14 crore has been approved by the government for the preparation of U-17 women's team for the event."

The scouting for the team began three months earlier and the girls have already played four international matches.

