Mission Football

SHILLONG, JULY 21: The state Cabinet today approved the mission document for the launching of the Mission Football which aims at transforming Meghalaya, a state known for its love for the game, as the “football power house” of the nation.

The mission document, which will be released tomorrow, has been drafted by the Sports and Youth Affairs department with a special focus on nurturing talents and attracting investments for creating football infrastructures in the state.

The state government has earmarked Rs 560 crore as the supporting budget for implementing the various programmes under the mission.

“The mission document reflect the humble intention of the government to take advantage of the people’s passion and the vision to make Meghalaya the football power house for the nation,” chief minister Mukul Sangma told reporters.

He said the whole exercise has taken quite sometime because of long due diligence on the way forward as to how this mission can enable to achieve this objective of transforming, promoting and developing the state as a power house.

According to him, the intend for promoting football through this mission mode intervention is also born out of the fact that the country is yet to have a team which can be called as competent enough to participate in football world cup.

Stating that this will not only nurture young talents from the state, Sangma said it will also create an enabling environment for other potential aspiring footballers to come  and making it as a destination for activities related to football.

Informing that there will also be special budgetary provision, the chief minister said, “Rs 560 crore is the supporting budget from the state plan which will be acting as a catalyst to attract more and more investiment from other sources.”

He however said that the government will also aggregate this proposed budget with other sources of funds available with the government from central ministries, NEC, NLCPR besides private sectors.

“There will also be scope for attracting investment from private sectors on a PPP mode or as a complete private investment – these are the other ways and means in promoting the state as a destination for sports,” he added.

With the mission involving a number of initiatives, Sangma said it requires a lot of investments which will be for creating new football infrastructures besides upgrading the existing football infrastructures across the state.

According to him, over the years humble efforts were made to create football infrastructures which however will not be enough to meet the requirements for promoting football.

“In view of the existing infrastructures, so one component is for upgrading them and also looked at sports as a product or a catalyst to promote the state as a destination,” he said.

Pointing out that many nations have also promoted their respective places through sports tourism, Sangma said under this mission, the government create ‘Sports park’.

“It will also promote investments by any of the stakeholders in the form of football clubs, sports association or private investors to promote sports academy with special focus on football based on certain eligibility criteria,” he added.

He said that the document covers all the requirements to create an eco-system for making Meghalaya a state where football will be a regular activity which will enable aspiring youths to nurture their talents.

“We have special focus on promoting grassroot level clubs at the block level and district level and that culminate in creating a system where major clubs to pick up the best and build up such sports and football clubs,” he said.

Special focus on supporting coaches and referees who will be made available for all grassroot clubs, support for holding state leagues and conduct of tournaments at block/district level and special focus on women football.

Asked, the chief minister maintained that the state government will not be providing lands to private players for developing the infrastructures.

“The sports organizations will have to look at lands which are under their possession and prepare project proposals,” he said adding “Up to 30 per cent project cost will be by the government subjected to ceiling of Rs 75 lakh.”

According to him, the idea is to slowly encourage having dedicated football infrastructures, creating football entertainment park and building up that passion for football much higher than before making it very popular.