MALAPPURAM: The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) is starting a football trust in Malappuram. It is for first time that a political party in the country is forming a football academy and club under it.
The CH Football Trust will head and monitor the formation of the club and all other activities. The project is being implemented with the support of the IUML Malappuram district committee. The Trust will start functioning in August. The organisers are planning to form local-level academies at 16 centres in the district and a central academy based in Malappuram. “We will conduct selection trials to the local academies on May 23 and 24. The academy will give training to children in the age group of 12-15. Each local-level academy will give training to 30 children for a year. A total of 480 children will get training from all the centres in the district in a year,” coordinator P Shamsudheen Edavanna said. The academy will have a coach, assistant coach and a camp in-charge in every centre. They will give the trainees a 15-day-long class under the coaches of international standards. The training programme will be designed from the ideas generated during this session.
“The academy is planning to give training to improve fitness, stamina, skills, match experience etc. of the camp members. Thirty children will be selected after the completion of the one-year programme to the central academy. They will undergo professional training for five years. The academy will also arrange educational facilities and jobs for them,” said IUML district general secretary P Abdul Hameed. They are also planning to form a professional football team including the players in the academy and also foreign players. The selection trials will be conducted under footballers and experts like
Malappuram Asees, Kurikesh Mathew, Haris Rehman, Premnath Philip, Munniyoor Muhammed Ali etc. The Trust is also planning to organise an international football tournament to promote the academy.