A football for every MP, to draw 11 mn kids

MISSION ELEVEN MILLION FOR INDIA 'SPORTS SUPERPOWER'

“You will be nearer to Heaven through football than through the study of Gita” — Swami Vivekananda (Lectures from Colombo to Almora)

IF THE sports ministry has its way, the government and its MPS will move one step closer to the way Swami Vivekananda dreamt about India: to him, playing football was one way to make young Indians stronger so that they could, in turn, help the country grow strong.

On Wednesday, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan will present every MP with a football at a special function at Parliament Gate No 1 at 10 am. The ministry hopes parliamentarians will be the most effective in attracting children to football ahead of the first ever FIFA Under-17 World Cup, to be held in India in October.

The idea, apparently the brainchild of Sports Minister Vijay Goel, is to reach out to 11 million children and “create football fever” across the country.

The ministry’s Mission Eleven Million to make “India Sports Superpower” is being credited to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for “promotion and spread of sports culture in the country”.

A pamphlet distributed among the MPS by the ministry says: “In his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ address on March 27, 2016, our honorable Prime Minister described FIFA U-17 World Cup as a great opportunity for youth that can start a revolution in sport throughout our country. In his words, whole of this year there should be an atmosphere of football in the schools and colleges all around our country.”

Backing the FIFA event in India, Prime Minister Modi has said it should serve as a catalyst for lifting the profile of the game in the country. “The objective is to give an opportunity to every child in the country to play football,” he said in a statement posted on the website of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) in January.

Encouraged by these remarks, the ministry, backed by FIFA and the AIFF, has launched a mass contact sporting programme that aims to cover 15,000 schools in 29 states and reach 11 million children. The FIFA U-17 World Cup is a “lifetime opportunity to showcase India throughout the world”, the pamphlet says, urging MPS to make use of the “historic moment in Indian sport”.

The MPS have been told that it is a “golden opportunity to start a revolution” in Indian sport. “Every village, every house, every child in this country must have a chance to play the world’s most popular game,” the message for the MPS says.

The ministry wants the MPS to organise football tournaments at village, block and district levels in their respective constituencies with the assistance of local Sports Authority of India unit, create mini-clubs for local level games and competitions, use MPLADS funds to build sporting hubs and organising sports festivals, and distribute footballs and sports kits to youngsters in their constituencies to develop a sports culture.