The Hindu : Sport / Football : DSA to launch elite club league

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 14, 2006

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Sport - Football

DSA to launch elite club league

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Soccer Association (DSA) will launch an elite club league to be contested on professional lines with an aim to popularise the game and lure spectators back to the football grounds.

At the end of the senior division league, the DSA will select the top 10 clubs and invite them for a quality competition, which will offer attractive prize money and appearance money for the players. DSA secretary N.K. Bhatia said, "the objective is to establish an elite football competition in Delhi. The participants will be well-organised clubs with emphasis on high standards to be set by the players, coaches, referees and administrators."

The DSA has roped in former junior international Arunesh Sharma, who is optimistic of an audience response that would match the packed-arena aura of his playing days in the 1960s. "We will make every effort to provide the spectators keen contests. We need time, but there is every effort to make the game as popular as it was three decades ago when more than 20,000 spectators would watch the local league matches," said Sharma.

Kick off in October

The city club league, with matches to be played on home and away basis, will kick off in October and finish in February with fixtures scheduled only for weekends. "The idea is to capture the audience by felicitating the timings. We intend to have matches under floodlights too, if possible," promised Sharma, who confirmed the matches would be played at four grounds in the city.

The drive to hold this league has resulted from the Vision India project where Delhi has been marked as one of the better playing centres in the country. Ironically, the DSA does not own a ground and has to depend on the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

"We want to acquire a ground and there is no dearth of funds. Our next big step would be in this direction," asserted Bhatia.

The 16 clubs in the senior division have agreed to participate in the league. They have also given their consent to one of the major requirements — to prepare a junior programme with no less than 100 trainees in their list.

"We want each club to launch a proper junior programme so that there is a steady stream of talent emerging from all corners of the city," emphasised Sharma.

Promoting talent

Efforts will also be made to promote talent from the walled city, once the nursery of football in the capital. "There is no doubt that we have not been able to attract youngsters from the old city to play football, but we concentrate in this direction at the grass root level," assured Bhatia.

According to Sharma, a league involving schools would also be launched next month. The DSA has received a whopping response with 40 schools from eight zones confirming their participation. "A similar league for college teams will also be held," added Bhatia.

"We will form a special committee to conduct this elite league. Football in the capital will get a big boost from the visit by Sepp Blatter (FIFA president) in October," said Bhatia, one of the key men involved in this seven-year project of reviving the game in Delhi with the backing of the All India Football Federation.

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