PANJIM: The women’s football committee of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has thought of a slew of initiatives to promote women’s football in the country and in Goa too. Valanka Alemao, the AIFF executive committee member and CEO of Churchill Brothers, said initiatives were discussed to promote the game at a meeting recently.
Valanka Alemao said it was important for former national players to be bought into the fold to ensure these initiatives were a success. The meeting which was held virtually had participants bringing in a lot of suggestions to promote the game. It was uniformly agreed that grass root level initiatives were important.
Valanka said, “In women’s football it is all the more challenging because parents do not encourage the girl child to play football. We need to change that perception. We need to have a league system at the U-13 and U-15 level. A U-17 league Khelo India League was started and we need similar leagues at different age groups. We should have a u-13 league in the state”.
She went on to say that scouting had to be done in a transparent fashion. She said, “We need to have a lot of ex-women players who could be a core team of scouts. We need to have regional scouts who can track talent across the country.”
When asked how much they would be paid she said they were now doing it for the love of their country. Their accommodation and transport could be taken care of. It was important to work as a team and the journey ahead was long.
The same principle would apply to Goa, she said. Valanka said, “Vedanta is sponsoring the women’s league in Goa and I feel it is important for other corporates to step up and be counted. A lot of children are interested and we need to have leagues across various ages. Schools, academies can come and play in these leagues.”
