Swami Vivekanand once famously said, “You will be nearer to heaven through football than through the study of the Gita.” Such an enlightened great making a mention of the world’s most played sport has some deep rooted meaning to it.
The meaning is more so relevant to this generation that is moving away from both active physical activity as well as spiritual study of Bhagwad Gita. There is a growing need to get the younger children to get involved in physical activities especially sports that build life-skills and virtues of sportsmanship. The open spaces to play are reducing and the kids are spending more time stuck to the screens of the virtual world. One cannot deny or prevent the penetration of technology in our lives but technology should enable human potential rather than disable physical well-being and creativity. The challenge is to create the balance. I believe football could be a possible solution to create this balance.
We are looking at a very young population in the country which has global aspirations. These aspirations are fuelled by the high media exposure that the youngsters have access to. The perception of football to this generation is that of a cool sport and there are global communities supported by social media that are forming transnational identities in pursuit of their common passion.
So far so good. The participation at the passive level is huge and still growing. The trick is to convert this virtual passion into on-ground active participation that engages children at the grassroots level through the sport of football.
With two residential Sesa Football academies, Vedanta Football project is aiming at taking football to a larger base within the communities.
This is being done by creating community outreach program that run over a longer period offering the much needed technical support, equipment and competition to the young participants in the age group of 6 to 12 for boys and girls and 12 to 14 for boys who have a possible chance to enter the academy. The program shall be well aligned with our scouting process as driven by the new Spanish head coach who has vast experience at the youth level across Europe.
Football training is turning into an industry in itself. While the serious football clubs are looking at grassroots training as a supply chain to their first teams, there are serious entrepreneurs who are creating a profitable business mode out of the demand for professional training in safe and secure environment.
Business has been a bad word in the world of Indian Football for a long time but I won’t mind such a business if done with professional ethics with an honest objective of providing recreational football to kids who otherwise would be stuck to their virtual gaming or choosing a lesser productive alternate entertainment avenues. Such programs will definitely promote the game at a broader level and a kid engaged with football today will remain a fan of the game for years to come.
This is where the professional clubs have an opportunity to find their fan groups which are so essential to their sustenance. Just like any other industry, football too will go through an evolution and a part of this football training business will see better ecosystem in times to come. We need to appreciate the realities of the dynamic world and look for innovations in grassroots engagement which could be sustained with a relevant economic model.
Kids are dreamers and they should dream. The dreams of becoming a Messi, Ronaldo, Bhutia or even a Chhetri should be cherished and if that means that the kids will take the field to imitate their icons then be it. I will be happy to see more kids trying to dribble, tackle or simply kick-about in the park. And surely the healthy bodies with healthy minds will be assets to the nation.
