In modern soccer, the administrators play an equal role as the players. Moulding of talent requires better channeling of resources. It is under these circumstances that the Thiruvananthapuram District Football Association’s (TDFA) decision to start a soccer academy of its own merits attention.
As the body has always found itself inept in mobilising funds, especially after failing to conduct the GV Raja tournament in time owing to failure in finding sponsors, it should be seen whether the proposal for setting up an academy blooms or not.
“We have decided to set up the academy and the initial work will begin after the GV Raja tournament. Now, our focus is on the GV Raja football tournament. The additional revenue generated from the tournament would be used to fund the academy,” said C Selvakumar, joint secretary of TDFA.
The TDFA officials expect a profit of around ` 10 lakh from the tournament and they are toying with the idea of channelising almost ` 5 lakh for the academy. But the embarrassing state of affairs as of now is that even the exact date of the tournament is yet to be announced and the organisers so far have not been able to procure full funds for conducting the tourney.
But the TDFA officials seem pretty confident that they can make the academy functional by November. That, they think, would help to develop a bunch of quality junior players. “Our kids have significantly improved their performance under the Vision India programme, a dream project being implemented by the All-India Football Federation. Those kids need to be provided superior training and that is the intention of the academy. It will house 40 selected youths under the age of 16. If needed, foreign coaches would also be roped in,” said Selvakumar.
It is too early to say whether the dream project will kick off or not. But the track record of independent district bodies certainly raises alarm bells.
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