Bhubaneswar, Jan 27: With the aim to promote Football from grassroots to elite, Department of Sports and Youth Services, in association with All India Football Association (AIFF) and Football Association Odisha (FAO) today, launched the AIFF E- Certificate Course.

Over the next two weeks, three batches of E certificate course, of 24 participants each, will be conducted by AIFF. The E-certificate program is the first step in a coach’s development pathway and is an attempt to develop quality grassroots coaches across different parts of the State.

Encouraging the coaches, Principal Secretary, Sports, Vishal K Dev, said, “The Govt. of Odisha had signed a MoU with the AIFF, as part of which, there would be initiatives planned for development of the Football Ecosystem in the State of Odisha. Not only in our state, but across the country, one of the biggest deterrents to producing quality footballers is the age at which a boy or a girl is initiated to quality football training. While the broader meaning of grassroots football is quite elaborate, the focus of the E certificate course on training coaches to impart football coaching in the right way to age groups 6-12 is crucial in football pedagogy in our state and country. The AIFF E-certificate program is the first step in a coach’s development pathway, and we are hopeful that this initiative will encourage you to develop your own self and take up further upskilling through the D,C, B license and so on.”

He added, “We had recently announced that our Sports Hostels would also be running day boarding programs, and in football, our focus will be to target the age categories of 6- 12 as part of the day boarding program. Also, in a phased manner, we will push to kick-start these grassroots football training programs in a majority of districts in Odisha and create a pool of talented young footballers in the State.

Young footballers will have the opportunity to make the best use of other opportunities that the Govt. has provisioned for them – Residential Sports Hostels, AIFF HPC youth teams, Odisha FC youth teams, etc., to further their football careers.

Ashirbad Behera, Secretary, FAO, shared, “I really appreciate the efforts taken by the Sports and Youth Service Department, Government of Odisha for the promotion of football in our state. I’m really grateful to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for this kind support and patronage in promoting Sports and games, especially Football in our state.”