THE SUBURBAN STORY

Twenty boys from different age groups are playing on a little ground of 40 yards x 30 yards. This is a regular scenario in a suburban area of Howrah, West Bengal. The footballers are between 18 to 30 years; they all represent various clubs from Calcutta's premier division down to the fifth division. But there is no goal-post; the ground is surrounded by a school and a road. Actually this is a snap from a small club from Bagnan, Howrah. We have eight divisions in the Calcutta Football League, and there are more than 150 clubs registered with the IFA. So we need at least 150x30 players, but we have just two academies in Bengal, the Mohun Bagan-SAIL Football Academy in Durgapur and the other is the IFA-CSF Academy in Haldia. Small clubs from all over West Bengal supply the huge number of players to the Calcutta Maidan.

Take this club for example; they have no ground, no tent and obviously no sponsor. They train on a school ground. These football clubs are supplying youth players from all satellite towns like Barasat, Barrackpur, Sodhpur, Uluberia, Chandannagar, Andul, Basirhat, Liluah, Uttarpara and they all have to face the same problems. A player from a suburban zone has to overcome so many hurdles you just can't count. Take Uttam Patra for an example, he play for George Telegraph SC. He was a promising young player at the beginning of his career; he was in the junior Mohun Bagan team and he played a vital role behind Mohun Bagan's triumph in the under-19 National League. Then he joined George Telegraph, now he has to travel more than 80 kms every day. He travels 30 minutes on bike, one and half hours on train and then 20 minutes in a bus to reach his training ground on the Maidan and returns the same distance everyday.

Like him all young players are fighting their individual battle everyday and all small clubs are fighting to survive. Players have contracts for only for 3-4 months (who don't play in big club), the rest of the season they have to depend on their local club. But the local clubs are not financially strong. So money is a problem, distance is a problem and our football is too much city based which is a key problem. You can't ignore suburban or village football. We need to take a serious look at this problem.