The
grassroots developmental plan is a strategic framework to identify, nurture and
introduce sports talents into the mainstream of sports. It is an essential
element to establish a supply line of players from the local level to the
international level. These initiatives are usually set up by the technical
experts and are often evaluated to measure the outcomes against the outlined
objectives.
In
India, the apex body of football, along with the state associations, clubs and
private organizations, is playing an instrumental role for setting up a process
of grassroots development in football. Some of these initiatives are discussed
below.
In
2011, FIFA made an initiative to set up eight regional academies in India.
Mumbai, Delhi/ NCR, Kolkata and Bengaluru were selected for the first phase for
setting up the academies and Chandigarh, Kerala and Chennai were selected for
the second phase. Decision was made to select 30-35 boys in the age group of
14-16 years for each academy. The selected boys from these academies will go to
the elite academy for further development. FIFA decided to invest USD 500,000
for this project. The academies will surely produce quality talents in football
if properly planned and managed.
The
AIFF Grassroots Programme was introduced in October 2012 to select and nurture
football talents of the country from the grassroots level. As a part of this
programme, AIFF motivates the State Associations to introduce programmes in
their respective states to increase the participation level in the age group of
6-12 years. Some of the initiatives, taken by the AIFF, for increasing
participation at the grassroots level are presented in the following table.
Table 1: Number of grassroots
developmental programmes by the AIFF
|
Sl. No.
|
Activities
since October 2012
|
Number
|
|
1
|
States
and Union Territories which have already undertaken AIFF’s grassroots
development programme
|
6
|
|
2
|
Number
of FIFA grassroots courses
|
3
|
|
3
|
Number
of AIFF grassroots courses
|
20
|
|
4
|
Number
of AIFF grassroots instructor course
|
1
|
|
5
|
Number
of grassroots festivals across the country (Including AFC grassroots day
festivals)
|
139
|
|
6
|
Total
number of trained grassroots leaders in the country
|
635
|
|
7
|
Number
of grassroots instructors in India to conduct AIFF’s grassroots courses
|
27
|
Mizoram
was the first state to implement the grassroots development programme of AIFF.
The first grassroots centre of the state was set up in Aizawl. Since then,
grassroots centres were set up in districts in Mizoram.
The
FIFA grassroots course was conducted in Kalyani in West Bengal in November 2012
with participants from 17 states. The objective of this course was to make the
grassroots leaders aware of the philosophy of the programme.
In
Chandigarh, the grassroots centres are conducted through schools by the
grassroots leaders. The Western India Football Association (WIFA) is playing an
important role in implementing the grassroots developmental activities in the
state of Maharashtra. The AFC celebrates ‘AFC Grassroots Day’ on 15th
May every year and most of the state associations, clubs and academies of India
celebrate this occasion by organising ‘Grassroots Festivals’ under the AFC and
the AIFF.
In
June 2013, a grassroots course was conducted by the AIFF in Goa with 38
grassroots leaders. The Goa Football Association (GFA) has already set up 11
grassroots centres in the state. The Goa Football Development Council is
working with the GFA to run a number of grassroots centres in Goa.
A
number of grassroots courses have already been conducted by the AIFF in various
states including Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Assam.
It
is expected that these initiatives will certainly produce football talents who
will serve Indian football in future. The grassroots developmental initiatives,
taken by the private organizations, will be discussed in the next part.
