AFL targets 100,000 Indian participants after 18 years of just 20,000
AFL and two prime ministers back an India expansion built from the ground up, not from the top down
Since Australian rules football arrived in India in 2008, just 20,000 people have participated total. AFL boss Andrew Dillon, alongside Australian PM Anthony Albanese and visiting Indian PM Narendra Modi at the MCG, has announced a plan for more than 100,000 registered participants, targeting schools, junior academies, coaching and women's pathways in every Indian state.
The AFL previously abandoned expansion pushes into China, New Zealand and the UK.
Why it mattersIndia-born people are now Australia's largest overseas-born group at 971,020, yet the AFL still has no player with two Indian-heritage parents to have debuted. The gap between the diaspora and the game is real, and this is the most structurally serious attempt yet to close it.
Corroborated bytheage.com.au
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