The Sports Minister demands more from state and district football associations…
The Government of India are leaving no stone unturned in their bid promote football across the length and breadth of the country, according to Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Kiren Rijiju.
The 48-year-old, speaking in an online coaches’ conclave on Friday, praised the All India Football Federation (AIFF) for their sustained efforts to develop Indian football.
But Rijiju wants the state and district associations to take a more proactive role in spreading the game across the country. He assured that the government will help financially but the local bodies in consultation with the AIFF must work with more vigour.
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“The football culture cannot be restricted to North-East of India, West Bengal, Goa and Kerala. It has to spread across the country. Football leagues at the local level are very important. The idea is to take football to the school level. The government will be there to provide financial backup.
While he expressed concern with the way the state associations are functioning, it is worth noting that there has been an attempt by the AIFF who started a State Development Program which has had sucess in states like Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Mizoram. But many states have not participated in it actively.
“There are no robust sports bodies at the state level. They are not active. I am candidly accepting this. We need those bodies to be robust. Then only the government can come into the picture. I want to discuss with the AIFF, after the Covid-19 situation is over, and draw a roadmap on how to make the state and district bodies more active.”
He indicated that associations who are interested but do not have the resources will be provided ample support.
“Then conducting events will be a lot easier. Resource will not be a constraint if we have a proper plan. Once the roadmap is ready we want to call a meeting comprising of all the heads of state bodies as they will be the ones who will be taking care of the game at the grassroots level. There will be no shortage of funds for the development of football. I assure you that there will be no crash crunch for Indian football to develop the game,” expressed the minister.
Rijiju also spoke highly of AIFF President Praful Patel and emphasised that he intends to speak with all stakholders in order to help develop Indian football.
“Mr. Patel is a very old colleague of mine. We have been in the parliament for a long time. I know he has the resources (to help Indian football). All stakeholders will be called and we can discuss about the future plans. The golden generation of Indian football will return,” he said.
“My priority is to meet Stimac, AIFF, and all other top experts and take inputs from them. I want to make football as a way of life in India. After hearing from them I can make the right decisions on behalf of the government,” he added.
Rijiju praised the AIFF for successfully hosting the FIFA U17 Men’s World Cup in 2017 and wants to replicate the performance in the next event that India is set to host, the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup.
“We organised the FIFA U17 World Cup and it was so successful that the FIFA team came and told me that it was one of the best organised age-group world cups. I am in touch with the FIFA representative in India and we are working on new dates for the U17 Women World Cup. It is important that we create a buzz around the upcoming FIFA world cup. We even had a discussion with the Ministry of Women and Child Development and Sports Authority of India (SAI) to create a league as well,” said the parliamentarian.
