Efforts on to popularise football through school children

The sports ministry has decided to initiate a series of steps to popularise football at the grass-root level following prime minister Narendra Modi's talk on next year's FIFA Under-17 World Cup in his 'Mann Ki Baat' programme.
The ministry has already taken up one such ambitious project, Mission 11 Million, after getting directions directly from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

The programme, which has been designed in consultation with FIFA, will see the engagement of more than one crore school children in football-related activities in about 30 cities across the country. As per the information with dna, there will be an All-India Inter School Championship commencing early next year. As much as close to one crore school kids from all the states and Union Territories will be encouraged to participate in the tournament and popularise football in the build-up to the 2017 World Cup.

The ministry knows that the programme would require massive funding. The government is expected to contribute around Rs 120 crore for the World Cup, and the Mission 11 Million programme would be funded out of this budget. FIFA would be providing around $6 million for the tournament while another $7 million has to be coughed up by the AIFF with the help of the government, a major chunk of which will be spent on infrastructure creation and stadium renovation.

A crore-plus school kids playing the game would not only strengthen the grass-root level, but also help football find its lost footing.

China have already been spending heavily in football to become a global force. According to media reports, as per Chinese President Xi Jinping's 10-year-plan, which runs until 2025, a total of 20,000 football schools will be opened by 2017, while 30,000 more will come up by 2025 to produce 100,000 potential home grown football players.

The ministry already held several rounds of discussions with FIFA, AIFF, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), Central Board of Secondary Educations (CBSE), Subroto Mukherjee Sports Education Society, School Games Federation of India (SGFI) and U-17 World Cup Organising Committee to work out the formal launch of programme in October 2016.

An 18-member Implementation Committee, under the chairmanship of sports minister Jitendra Singh, has been created to ensure smooth implementation of the programme.