New Delhi, Feb 29 : The All-India Football Federation (AIFF), on Thursday announced the commencement of the Men's National Football Championship (NFC) for Under 20, taking another step towards improving the competition structure at the age-group level.

The newest age-group competition in AIFF's calendar for the year 2023-24 will start in April and will be known as the 'Swami Vivekananda U20 National Football Championship'. The championship will be held at the sprawling Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama in Narainpur, Chhattisgarh having an in-house full-fledged football pitch, training facilities and residential area, the AIFF informed on Thursday.

Following the discontinuation of the U21 competition during the Covid-19 pandemic, the AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey, last July, expressed the urgent need to restart the competition in the senior boys' category to fill the existing void at this level.

'I'm pleased to see the Under-20 NFC competition has been brought back into our football calendar this year, thus bridging a wide gap which was in existence last few years in our youth structure pyramid between U17 Youth League to Santosh Trophy,' Chaubey said in an AIFF release.

'We felt the need to have the competition in Under 20, to put the building blocks in place for our footballers' gradual progression into senior competitions and to create a pipeline for Asian Games U23 selection. The U20 group competition is very crucial in a player's life cycle to step into a professional career. With the U20 competition back in recognition, the youth structure slabs from Sub Junior to Santosh Trophy gets completed,' added Chaubey.

As a next step, AIFF will invite all its state member associations to participate in the U20 Championship.

/IANS