KOZHIKODE: The football fraternity in Kerala has its fingers crossed as the state machinery races against time to ‘prepare’ Kochi for the FIFA U-17 World Cup. Outside of the ‘recognised’ game, though, football is generating another kind of fervour. Of a hue more humane.
The craze for ‘Sevens’ - seven-a-side football unique to the state - is stirring up enough money from the dusty playgrounds of North Kerala for charity. Where individuals cannot be reached, charitable organisations and local self-governments have stepped in as intermediaries.
With around 600 tournaments held in a season, and 70 of them being major collection events registering an average income of Rs 5 lakh, the organisers have been able to distribute aid running into tens of lakhs.
Major tournaments in Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur, Kasargod, Wayanad, Thrissur and Palakkad districts have turned venues of charity and welfare activities.
“Kerala owes much to Sevens for grooming youngsters and showing them the way to professional football. Now, the sport is scripting a new history by wiping tears,” Sevens Football Association (SFA) state president K M Lenin tells ‘Express’.
The Wandoor Janakeeya Football Committee made a combined contribution of Rs 19 lakh to three charity organisations and the relief fund of the panchayat this season. “We got around Rs 3 lakh this year from the committee and spent it for the care of renal patients in Wandoor and the nearby localities,” says Ashraf K of Sneha Kidney Patients’ Welfare Committee.
According to SFA functionaries, tournaments allocate at least 40 per cent of the total income towards relief activities. Organisers either select the needy directly or distribute the aid to the beneficiaries identified by the local bodies or charity organisations.
“These days, we contribute the charity amount to the relief fund of the Koduvally Municipality instead of directly handing it over to the beneficiaries,” says Thangals Muhammed, SFA Kozhikode president and a key organiser of the Koyappa All India Sevens Football Tournament in Koduvally.
Apart from charity initiatives, tournaments extend financial aid towards educational empowerment, development of playgrounds and for holding camps for budding players.
Meanwhile, beneficiaries are all praise for the football fraternity’s helping hand.
“The new culture has helped my family treat our ailing son,” says K Sreenivasan.
The organisers of a sevens football tournament at Alingal in Malappuram had handed over Rs 42,000 towards the treatment of son Adithyan at the Regional Cancer Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.