It is boom time for Indian football. The Liverpool Coaching Academy in India is being launched as the first Steve McMahon Football Academy (SMFA) which will kick off in October at the Genesis Global School in Noida. ‘The Academy will begin enrolling kids in the age-groups of under-8, under-10, under-12, under-14 and under-16. They plan to open two academies this year with 500 kids across all age-groups at each centre. In the next eighteen months, centres will also be opened in Mumbai, Goa and the Southern states.
With FIFA’s guidance and support, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has finalised plans for setting up regional academies and an elite academy. In Phase 1 of the Project, four Regional Academies would be set up in Bangalore (Goal Project), Kolkata (Pailan World School), Mumbai/Navi Mumbai and Delhi/NCR by March 31, 2012. In case the Sikkim Goal Project is fully operational by the end of this year, it may also be added in the first phase itself. The tenure in the Elite Academy will be for two years (till the age of 18). From here the boys can move to various clubs after completing their football education.
In the next phase – by March 2013, Academies have been planned in Chennai, Chandigarh and Kerala. Each Academy will house between 30-35 boys in the age group of 13-14. FIFA is setting up the guidelines for this scouting process. The Goa Technical Centre which is currently used as a Training Centre for the U-16 and U-19 national teams will continue for the time being but once the other Academies are in place, the same may be converted into another Regional Academy.
Considering India’s negligible international football status (FIFA ranking in September was 158), this overwhelming desire by FIFA and renowned foreign clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton, Bayern Munich and Celtic to upgrade football in India may have other hidden motives. After all India is not like Bahrain or Qatar, on the verge of qualification for the World Cup. Are the reasons to help Indian football altruistic or market oriented?
The popularity of English and European football is increasing rapidly with live telecasts of English Premier League (EPL) matches beamed in by satellite TV. So supporting English clubs, like Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal reflects the growing self worth of contemporary India’s globalising elite. The urban cosmopolitan youth have the desire and spending power to purchase the merchandise of leading foreign clubs and join their global fan base. After all India’s English speaking middle-class consists of 120 million people, more than the population of Britain.
For some years now it has also been noticed that there has been a shift in the sporting culture of metropolitan Indian schoolboys of the mall-going middle and upper middle-class. They are seceding from international cricket and switching loyalties to English league football. With the decline of the West Indies, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe becoming insignificant competitors, international cricket seems like a small and tawdry colonial sport. So the English speaking middle-class are drifting towards international football as it is the very ultimate in cosmopolitan fabric. It is this thriving middle class which the foreign clubs are targeting as potential customers and fans. This is also not a new development.
During his visit here in March 2007, FIFA President Sepp Blatter had remarked that India is a sleeping giant. FIFA and the foreign clubs are trying to awaken this slumbering giant. The motives may be commercial but if in the process, football infrastructure and standards improve, it can serve as a launching pad for the revival of Indian football. Football academies in India have existed since the mid-eighties but lacked the glamour and finance which a foreign club can bring.
The Tata Football Academy (TFA) inaugurated in Jamshedpur in 1987 was set up to nurture talent in India. The Nehru Cup international tournaments (held from1982 onwards) and the Super Soccer series organized by the Tatas had revealed the gulf in standards between Indian and international football in the pre-satellite television era. The TFA was modelled on the academy of Brazil’s Sao Paulo Football Club, which visited India in 1984. Since its inception, the TFA has been at the forefront of the Indian Youth Development system and organises regular exposure trips to Brazil and Germany. Over a 100 players from this academy, including Carlton Chapman, P. Renedy Singh, Deepak Mondal, Mahesh Gawli, current pre-Olympic captain Raju Gaikwad and Jeje Lalpekhlua have played for the country.
Inspired by the TFA model, Williamson Magor set up an academy for talented players from the North-East in Monabari in the 1990s but disbanded it after a decade, citing financial reasons. In the new millennium, four academies were set up. The Chandigarh Football Academy, the brain child of the former Administrator of the union Territory of Chandigarh Lt. Gen (retd.) J.F.R. Jacob, was inaugurated on 7 August 2000, the Mohun Bagan-SAIL Academy started in Durgapur on 20th July 2003 and the Sesa academy in Sanquelim, Goa a year later. The Premier Indian Football Academy (PIFA) established in Mumbai in 2003 regularly takes talented players to training camps at Arsenal’s Emirates stadium and other European clubs. Baichung Bhutia’s training centre in Delhi with Portuguese coaches has also just started.
Hopefully the existing academies and the much hyped new academies to be set up by FIFA and foreign clubs broadbases football in India and it is not yet another false dawn.
