Our leadership

People behindthe progress.

A Director who has backed Northeast football from the stands to the boardroom, and an Advisory Board that brings together club leadership, elite coaching, public policy and four decades of telling the region's story.

One Director. Four advisors. One commitment to the game.

The Director's visionWhy the Foundation exists

John Abraham · Director

More thanthe game.

For John Abraham, football in the Northeast is about more than the game. It is about the dreams that begin on local grounds, in communities where a child first falls in love with football.

The Northeast is a hub of Indian football, with a deep-rooted culture and passion for the game. The NorthEast Football Foundation exists to nurture those dreams, create opportunities, and build pathways for the next generation.

**John Abraham**Director, NorthEast Football Foundation

Meet the leadershipExperience across the game

Different roles.Shared direction.

Between them, our leaders have owned a club and run one, coached India’s young footballers, reported from the Northeast’s grounds for more than two decades, and advised governments on how large systems change. What unites them is a belief that talent in this region needs structure, opportunity and people willing to build both.

01 · Director

John Abraham

Director, NorthEast Football Foundation · Owner, NorthEast United FC

John Abraham is the Director of the NorthEast Football Foundation and the owner of Indian Super League club NorthEast United FC. A National Award-winning producer and one of Indian cinema’s best-known faces, he has spent more than two decades championing sport and fitness, with football at the heart of it.

At NorthEast United he has made the club a platform for the region’s talent and a source of pride across all eight states. The Foundation is the next step: a structure that reaches children long before they reach a stadium, on the local grounds where their love for the game begins.

“Our responsibility is to create that environment where that one player can emerge.”

02 · CEO

Mandar Tamhane

Chief Executive Officer, NorthEast United FC

Mandar Tamhane is the Chief Executive Officer of NorthEast United FC, where he shapes the club’s long-term vision, its youth development programmes and its overall football strategy in the Indian Super League.

He works where the professional game meets the grassroots, deciding how scouting, academies and first-team ambitions connect. For the Foundation, that means a direct line between a child’s first training session and a real professional pathway, with a top-flight club’s structures and standards behind it.

“A youth system is only as strong as the pathway at the end of it. Our job is to make the road from a village ground to the ISL real, visible and open to every child with the talent to walk it.”

03 · TECHNICAL THINK TANK

Naushad Moosa

Technical Think Tank · Head Coach, India U-23 · Head of Youth Development, NorthEast United FC

Naushad Moosa is a former footballer and one of Indian football’s most respected coaches. He is head coach of the India national under-23 team, and at NorthEast United FC he serves as assistant manager, head coach of the reserve team and head of youth development.

Few people see the whole journey the way he does, from raw teenage talent to the national shirt. He brings that eye to the Foundation’s coaching standards, player identification and the day-to-day detail of how young players are trained and supported.

“Talent is everywhere in the Northeast. What young players need is good coaching early, honest feedback, and someone who believes in them before the rest of the world does.”

04 · Advisory Board

Nitin A. Gokhale

Advisory Board · Strategic Affairs Analyst, Author & Media Entrepreneur

Nitin A. Gokhale began his career in journalism in 1983 as a sports reporter, and his love for the game has never left him. An avid films and sports buff, he has spent 42 years across print, broadcast and digital media, and lived and reported from India’s North-east for 23 of them, between 1983 and 2006. He knows the region’s grounds, communities and passion for football first-hand.

Today he is one of South Asia’s leading strategic analysts, the author of more than a dozen books on military history, insurgencies and wars, and the founder of three niche digital platforms: BharatShakti, StratNewsGlobal and StratNewsGlobal.tech. An alumnus of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Hawaii, he is visiting faculty at the Defence Services Staff College, the three war colleges, the National Defence College, the College of Defence Management and the IB’s intelligence school. For the Foundation he brings a storyteller’s instinct and a deep understanding of the region: how to tell the Northeast’s football story to India and the world.

“I started on the sports beat and spent 23 years in the Northeast. I have seen this region’s love for football up close. Its talent deserves a stage as big as its passion.”

05 · Advisory Board

Shardul Fadnavis

Advisory Board · Partner, PwC India · Energy, Utilities & Resources, Government & Public Services

Shardul Fadnavis is a Partner with PwC in India and leads the Energy, Utilities and Resources practice for the Government & Public Services sector. With close to two decades of global experience, he has driven large-scale transformation programmes in energy transition, utilities modernisation and renewables integration, spanning policy advisory, investment strategy, programme governance and end-to-end execution.

A passionate follower of sport, Shardul understands that lasting change in the game happens where public policy, funding and delivery meet. His experience of how governments and institutions plan, invest and execute helps the Foundation align with public schemes, build partnerships that last, and turn good intentions into programmes that run on the ground.

“Sport changes lives when the system behind it works: the right policy, the right investment, and programmes that actually reach the ground. That is what the Northeast’s young athletes deserve.”

Leadership witha long view.

From the owner’s seat to the training pitch, from the newsroom to the policy table, this is a group that understands every part of what it takes to build a footballer and a football culture. Their shared aim is simple: that the next great player from the Northeast is found, guided and given the chance to inspire others.

Explore programmes Our vision