Central government pushes for football as sport of choice in India

Government’s mission is to reach 11 million children through ‘massive’ school engagement programme, according to an infographic tweeted by sports minister Vijay Goel on Tuesday.

The BJP-led India government has undertaken an initiative to make football ‘a sport of choice’ in India. In a country where cricket rules the popularity charts, the government is making an attempt to make football the No 1 sport. Incidentally, the move comes after the popularity gained by the Indian Super League (ISL) in a short span of time.

Sports Minister Vijay Goel (centre) was with All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Praful Patel at an event to flag off the Mission XI Million programme in New Delhi on Saturday. (AIFF)

Under the ‘Transforming India’ banner, the government’s mission is to reach 11 million children through a ‘massive’ school engagement programme. “Encourage and incentivise schools to make children play football on regular basis,” read the infographic which was tweeted by sports minister Vijay Goel on Tuesday.

The aim is to reach out to 37 cities and 12,000 schools across 29 states. The initiative will be carried out in three phases up to September 2017 where seminars for teachers and educators too will be conducted. There will also be in-school activities and football festivals.