The growth of football in Kerala has not been inclusive, especially when it comes to the case of women. The perfect example of apathy to the women who brave all opposition to play the game is Priya P V, the coach who hails from Kannur and who guided the U-13 national side to victory in the inaugural AFC championship in Colombo last March.
Despite a stellar performance as the coach who guided the national team to a glorious win and before that served the state team for almost 12 years, Priya has been working in Calicut University’s Physical Education Department as a lecturer for the last five years on contract basis. According to her, the state of affairs of women’s football in the state is dismal and requires some urgent remedial measures if the situation has to be improved.
“The main reason for the retarded growth of women’s football in the state is lack of playing opportunities. Except the inter-district championship and the nationals there are not many opportunities for the girls to wear the boot,” says Priya.
According to an office-bearer of the Thiruvananthapuram District Football Association (TDFA), women’s football is still in a rudimentary state in Kerala. “Many of the districts have no women’s team and in our case we are solely depending on the players from Sri Ayyankali Memorial Government Model Residential School to prepare the team. It is high time the state association gave due care to women’s football,” says TDFA joint secretary C Selvakumar.
To tackle the issue, Priya feels that the coaches should go to the grass-roots to train children. “The objective of such endeavours should be to teach the game to them. An interest for the game should be developed among young girls and the practice should be fun-oriented,” says Priya, who is now training the national U-14 squad at LNCPE here for the forthcoming AFC Championship.
Priya was born in Vengara, Kannur, to Prabhakaran P V and Suneedhi K. She has a brother Prasoon, who is working in Dubai. For Priya, sports was in genes as her father who worked in Defence was a football player.
In fact, it was her father who got her enrolled in a football coaching camp in Kannur during a summer vacation. She latter dabbled in athletics and handball before focusing totally on football in 1997, when she was doing her graduation. She played for the state team for 12 years and also became the captain in 2009.
