Kannur: As the World Cup fever grips Kerala, ace footballer Sunil Chhetri kicked off a venture of his friends in Kerala that will probably give wings to India's dreams of entering the elite tournament.
The Indian captain launched the F13 Football Academy, promoted by former international footballers, at Kadirur, 8 km from Thalassery, in Kannur district on Monday.
The academy at Kadirur is the first of the around 70 football coaching centres planned by F13 Football Academy across Kerala, said footballer Vineeth C K. "We are planning to set up at least five academies in each of the 14 districts in Kerala," he said.
The F13 Football Academy is promoted by footballers Vineeth, Mohammed Rafi, Rino Anto, N P Pradeep, volleyball player Tom Joseph, and hockey player P R Sreejesh, among others.
F13's next academy is coming up at Mavelikkara. The third one will be launched under a different brand at Thirunelly in Wayanad, said Vineeth, who now plays for Punjab FC, Ludhiana, in the I-League. "It will be a free-of-cost academy for 66 children from tribal communities and will be run by the F13 Foundation," said the midfielder.
The academy will be run from the playground of SAUP School, Thirunelly. "Today, we started preparing the work on the ground," said Vineeth on Monday, while he was on his way back after picking up Chhetri from Kannur airport.
In a video posted on his Instagram account, Pradeep said the academy was an attempt to revive the old football culture in Kerala.
K13 Football Academy will tie up sponsors to run the coaching centres. "We are open to tying up with sponsors if they come forward to help us," said Vineeth.
In Kannur, the Kadirur Service Cooperative Bank is the sponsor of the academy. "This is a first for a cooperative bank to sponsor a football academy," said the bank's president Sreejith Choyan. "But it is not the first for us to promote sports and fitness," he said.
Last January, the Kadirur bank started a multi-gym and started a cycling club that organises rallies and awareness campaigns on cycling. It has 174 members. "In May this year, we set up synthetic turfs for football and cricket," said Choyan.
The bank's directors wanted to start a football academy to promote football as well as to dissuade children from falling prey to drug abuse, he said. "That's when we decided to tie up with Vineeth's K13," he said.
The Kadirur will sponsor the kit and grounds. K13 Football Academy has recruited three coaches and the players would be given diet food during training. These will be standard features of all the academies coming up in the state, said Vineeth.
Children will be selected for three categories: Under-10, Under-14, and Under-17. "In Kadirur, we have selected 60 students each in Under 10 and U-14," he said. Selection for the U-17 category would be held later. "We wanted to start slowly," he said.
Choyan said the two batches would be trained for four days a week.
For the academy at Thirunelli, football trials would be held before November 25, said Vineeth. "These academies across the state will become scouting programmes for the K13 Foundation," he said.
Once the K13 Football Academy takes off, the players are planning to start coaching academies for volleyball and hockey in the state.
