Getting the basics right

The AIFF doesn8217;t know much about it, football-lovers don8217;t know much about it, even locals are hard-pressed when asked for details. Yet every weekend morning, 400 boys and girls, age 6 to 13, descend on the Sriram School here to pick up the skills and subtleties of soccer from the Indian Youth Soccer League and the Super Soccer Academy.

Run by expat Englishman Bill Adams academy and Arup Das league, the programme 8212; probably the biggest football grassroots project in the country 8212;implements the very ideas that was discussed at a conference held by AIFF on Indian football last month. And shows that with some dedication and a large dose of professionalism, sport can become popular, mindsets can be changed.

The duo were brought together by their passion for football three-odd years ago. Adams, who holds a coaching certificate from the Football Association England, settled down here with his Indian wife over a decade ago. His main aim now, he says, is to propagate the game. 8216;8216;There are two types of coaches 8212; the one who stands for competition and the other for developing the game. I belong to the second type.8217;8217;

Das, a graphic designer by profession 8212; he designed the nifty website http://www.indiayouthsoccer.com 8212; has been a football addict since childhood, inheriting from his father a passion for Manchester United. He decided to convert dreams into reality and, after trying to balance graphic design and goalscoring, has ditched the former for the latter.

The response to their project is huge. From the children, especially girls 8212; around 150 in the recently started league that drew inevitable comparisons with Bend it like Beckham. It8217;s reason enough for the duo to believe that they can spread the movement further they8217;ve passed up an opportunity to play in a tournament in Ireland. Said Arup, 8216;8216;We realised that it8217;s not difficult to popularise the game if everything is done methodically.8217;8217;

Indeed, method lies at the heart of the programme. The league is conducted strictly on FIFA guidelines which prohibit full 90-minute matches for those below 12. FIFA also bars match results being made public to ensure that, at this age, a misplaced sense of competition doesn8217;t overwhelm basic learning.

Teams are formed not according to school or age or any other denominator but created by seedings: a mix of the talented and the not-so-talented, young and not-so-young in each team. Though each team plays 18 matches in the seven-month league, the accent is not on winning or losing but on picking up the right skills.

A typical weekend morning will see the children in their bright, eye-catching jerseys playing matches and getting specific coaching. The training method is far more advanced than anything seen in Indian football. There is a huge field with 10 goalposts of varying heights for different age categories.

There are 10 coaches working on a contract basis with the project; most are PT teachers in their day jobs, happy to use their free time on weekends for a special project. One of them, preferring to speak anonymously, said, 8216;8216;Besides the good money I get from here, I also learn the latest international developments from the videos they show us. I have worked with AIFF bodies in the past but we were treated shabbily there with no scope for any education.8217;8217;

Adams says that the video sessions for coaches are a must as part of their development programme. 8216;8216;I did my course many years ago and even I have to keep on studying further. A coach8217;s job doesn8217;t stop with merely getting a certificate.8217;8217;

A project of this kind isn8217;t easy on the wallet. Das says that only now are they starting to think of breaking even. Part of the money comes from the course fees: for Rs 800, a player is given training, full kit and jersey and memento cups, whose total cost exceeds the fee amount.Finally, the sponsors have moved in. 8216;8216;There8217;s no problem in raising funds8217;8217;, says Adams. 8216;8216;It8217;s now the sponsors who are after us, much like cricket. We already have 12 sponsors and some of them keep asking us if we need more. It8217;s baffling why the AIFF cannot do these things at their level.8217;8217;

Why, indeed.