Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

For a much larger part of this and last year there were many reports that that the amount of playgrounds for the children were reduced drastically in Delhi and the children were now forced to travel longer distances and pay for the facilities of a ground which our elder enjoyed in abundance and free of cost.
But this lead to a very nice trend- As kids were forced to share grounds with many other people often leading to a very small area to play in or having fights in order to mark themselves a proper area to play in, some of these kids started to organize local tournaments for the teams to play in and in order to have a much better utilization of spaces for everyone to be content with and thus reducing the fights and having more of the space to play for each one them.
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Now if you are on facebook and in Delhi having friends who play football regularly you will find a new tournament being organized almost daily in Delhi with a participating fee and a winning amount which is in thousands and in almost of these tournaments there are teams applying in huge numbers, with such incentive and having a chance to play and prove themselves to better in a team sport such as football has managed to beat even the holy game of India cricket.
An example being that when a cricket tournament was organized in Gurgaon the Number of teams that applied for it was 50% less than the no. of teams that had applied for a football tournament during the same time.

Teams now are getting serious about them and some them making sure that their starting 11 is perfect while maintaining a Facebook page for people to contact them, these teams are now known is by others who now frequent to such events/tournaments.

While such a surge has been seen all over Delhi a major portion of such tournaments and teams have been originating from Dwarka probably because of the fact that playing area here is less as compared to other places with Dwarka having one of the oldest clubs of Delhi – Shastri FC which is a senior footballing academy who are known all over Delhi from the time they have started that is 1966, there many who have made huge gains over a little time , I managed to talk to one the teams that have been here for past two teams and have already been known part of the Delhi organizing circuits because of having a team that has taken on the biggies and beaten them.
They go by the name Leader’s FC and have built quite a reputation for them and they have finished in the top 4 quite often and now finally managed to win one this team has surly made sure that anyone who wants a good team in their tournament will surely know where to ask.

A photo of their team from the Facebook page: In this photo – Sachin, Rajat, Kashish, James,  IMG_2243Ayush, Steve, Renny, Gaurav, Kevin, Ashish

With Ashish having played in the Delhi state team, this team has managed to score goals while making sure that they do not concede much(which is quite a rarity in local football) has made sure that they improved upon game after game with their last tournament being played in June where they managed to win despite a strong field of opposition with their top scorer Steve managing to net the ball an amazing 18 times in 5 matches, this team was awarded with a prize money and a Brazuka ball as their reward which will give you an idea of how well organized these tournaments have been.

They are themselves organizing a tournament as of now when I spoke to Steve he said that the thing lack of playing space made sure that they look outside and went for such tournaments, but like many other local clubs they too are not funded and were looking for sponsors who would sponsor them for their kits while having made a Proper ID for them which is [email protected].

IMG_2244But maintaining such teams is a huge task as many of the members are either giving their boards, shift out of Delhi due to colleges or have to take up jobs outside delhi as their college life comes to an end. This is a problem that is faced by many here which is why there no such concrete clubs here but constantly ever changing ones and therefore many have established a system of  handing down the batons to the next best leader to lead the team and select new players so that the club remains standing.

 

While Dwarka also has the AIFF HQ based here they have been plan made for a Huge new stadium to be constructed in it at a price of 100cr rupees whole the original plan was to constrict 2 stadiums it was then made for only one stadium but considering that west Delhi does not have one ot is a huge step this will surly inject the game which has been on a rise for the past few years in Delhi and be the boost that may be required by India.

By saurabh

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