THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The district’s first professional football academy for women - the Kovalam Women’s Football Academy - and their women’s football team, also the first of its kind in the district, were launched at the Chandrasekharan Nair Stadium here on Saturday.
The academy will enrol around 100 youngsters from across the capital while the senior women’s team - which will have a pool of around 35 members - will compete in the first Kerala state senior women’s championship organised by the Kerala Football Association and slated to be held this year.
Apart from the exhibition matches of both boys and girls, several yesteryear sportspersons including former state hockey player D V Shakunthala were honoured during the inaugural ceremony of the academy. Olympian Bobby Aloysius, former world boxing champion K C Lekha, former international footballers S Lalitha, G Ayona and Treesa Margaret and international hockey players S Omanakumari and Ramani were among those who were felicitated on the occasion. Speaking at the function, V Sivankutty MLA, who is also the president of the Thiruvananthapuram District Football Association, said that the stadiums like those renovated for the 35th National Games must be made available for the youngsters to play. “You would need to pay around Rs 10,000 to rent the Chandrasekharan Nair Stadium for a day from the Kerala Police while at the University Stadium, Rs 4,000 is collected just to use it for daily walking,” Sivankutty alleged, suggesting that entry must be made free in order to help athletes develop.
He also demanded that the government must consider giving a job to the two children of Shakunthala, the former hockey player who is now running a wayside shop to earn a living. “That would be the best thing to do to honour such a sportsperson,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ebin Rose, coach of Kovalam Football Club, said that the aim of the women’s academy is to help India reach the World Cup in the women’s game.
“There is a lot of interest in the women’s football at the moment and chances are that the Indian women will qualify for the World Cup before the men do,” Ebin, a former state footballer, said.