Jamshedpur, Sep 19: India�s football standard in the international scenario has not improved or rather taken a downslide in the last 2 � 3 decades. One of the key factors attributed to the status of Indian football is almost a complete absence of grassroots football development programme, which encompasses young boys of 8 � 10 years and also coaches to train them.
TFA had initiated grassroots football programme two years back with the additional resources provided by the Steel Company.
It is now the endeavor to prepare coaches at the school level and also enhance knowledge of our coaches at the Feeder Centers, so as to encourage development of football in schools.
TFA initiated a new programme called �Coaches Orientation Programme� for preparing football coaches at the grassroots level. 18 school sports teachers have registered and committed to undergo coaches training for a period of three months. We have plans to culminate the training into AFC �D� Certificate Course to be conducted by All India Football Federation, at the end of three months.
The Coaches Orientation Programme will be conducted by TFA�s coaches, Faruk Ahmad and Shakti Chauhan. Both these coaches are qualified with AFC �A� Certification.
The objective of the programme is to introduce a structured way of football coaching in the local schools and also the Feeder centres, through the school sports teachers and the local coaches. The programme will also help in identification of good talent in football amongst the school children.
Surekha Nerurkar inaugurated the programme at TFA at 3:00 p.m. on September 19, 2013. In her inaugural address Mrs. Nerurkar emphasized the need to develop a physical training programme for school children which should complement their education. Appreciating TFA�s efforts in initiating the grassroots football development programme, she lauded the initiative of developing coaches at the school level for development of the game in a structured way.
She also presented playing kit to 23 children selected for the U8 Grassroots Football Training which started on September 12, 2013.
