Chandigarh Football Academy

Chandigarh Football Academy (CFA) - the name definitely evokes a curious response in the minds of Indian Football lovers. It is easy to interpret the reason for this. Where as Chandigarh is a place alien to Football in India without any tradition to boast of, a residential Football Academy is one of the last things that can be associated with Football in India. It is a bitter truth that neither the soccer governing body of India, the AIFF, nor any of its thirty plus affiliate units throughout the country has ever thought of a residential soccer academy, leave alone make it happen.
CFA is the place to call home while one is pursuing his soccer education. Living in a residence hall allows campers from different backgrounds to come together to share their experiences and personal goals. The CFA staff is committed around the clock to assisting campers achieve these goals. The professional goal for all the campers is same-to be top-notch professional footballers in future.
Prior to Chandigarh Football Academy, only one quality residential soccer academy had been set up in India. The high profile Tata Football Academy, started in the late eighties in Jamshedpur, has been producing many players who have been representing the nation in the last decade and even more prominently now. Chandigarh Football Academy happens to be the only residential soccer academy in India, which is run by the government. The Sports Department, Chandigarh Administration, Union Territory of India manages the operations of CFA. CFA has completed three years on 7th August 2003. CFA is like a breath of fresh air in the polluted environment of Indian Football.

Birth of CFA
CFA is the brainchild of the former Governor of Punjab and Administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) J.F.R. Jacob. A man, for whom Football is a passion, Lt. Gen. Jacob left no stone unturned to see his dream come true, when CFA was inaugurated on 7th August 2000. Since then there has been no looking back for CFA and the academy under the watchful eyes of coaches Harjinder Singh and Dr. Shaji Prabhakaran has grown in stature. It won't be a surprise if many of the current crop of CFA students, most of whom are yet to enter into their teens, don the national colours and represent some of the top clubs in the country in another 6 or 7 years' time and there after.

Vision
Unlike the few other academies in India, where youngsters are enrolled when they are at least 14 years old, CFA has believed in the universally accepted mantra for success in sports -'catch 'em young'. This is an absolute necessity for the best grooming and nurturing of talent as well as physical and mental development of the players. CFA is the only academy in the country that has a long-term vision, spanning from 7 to 9 years for each of its wards. In Indian Football and other sports, barring cricket to some extent, most of the sports persons come from poor and rural background. As a result, they never receive the right kind of nutrition in their formative years of physical development, which acts as a major handicap for them when they become professional footballers. Keeping this in mind, CFA started when the current batch of students was in the age group of 9-10 years old. They were picked up from all parts of Northern India by the talent scouts of CFA. Most of the players are from the rural areas with a poor background. Currently there are 24 youngsters in CFA representing various districts like Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Yamuna Nagar, Dharamsala and few other places in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

Infrastructure
The state-of-the-art residential academy has superb facilities to ensure scientific training is imparted to the youngsters. Dieticians, Physiotherapists, Doctors, Computer Instructors, Counsellors and audio visual facilities ensure that the focus is on the training of the technical, tactical, physical and mental aspects within the game. All players in CFA are in excellent physical condition.
The first batch of 24 kids stays in the Sports Hostel. The training complex is equipped with excellent facilities including a very good soccer turf, shooting walls of size 40ft by 10ft, sand pit of size 90 meter by 10 meter. Ultra-modern gym and therapeutic center is under construction. Boys are exposed to variety of activities apart from soccer training i.e. swimming, gymnastics, wrestling, etc., to have all round development. The lads are put up in 4 dormitories. The residential academy has separate rooms for various activities such as study room for the academics of the students, computer and multi-media rooms, dining halls, cloth room, recreational hall, etc. The CFA lads have just to bother about their development as footballers and concentrate on their academics. Everything else is taken care of by the administration of CFA. Highly nutritious diets are provided to players with lots of variations and in a day five meals are served. All the lads of CFA study in the Government Model High School (English Medium) in Chandigarh. Besides, eight private tutors are also engaged with CFA to take care of the academics of the young lads. The annual cost of running the operations of CFA is Rs. 30 Lakhs and is borne by the Chandigarh Administration.

The daily schedule of the CFA students on week days:

05:00 :	Wake up time
05:30 to 07:00 :	Training session
08:30 :	Breakfast
09:00 to 14:00 :	School
14:15 :	Lunch
15:00 to 17:00 :	Rest
17:00 to 19:00 :	Training session
19.15 :	Evening Snacks
19.30 to 20.55 :	Supervised Studies
21:00 :	Dinner
21:45 to 22.00 :	Mental training sessions

Sundays are reserved for counselling of the lads and computer classes.

Operations
Harjinder Singh (his interview with IndianFootball.com has been featured) and Dr. Shaji Prabhakaran are the two coaches associated with CFA. Chief coach Harjinder Singh is a former international player of repute who made it into the Asian All Stars XI. Dr. Shaji Prabhakaran is one of the youngest and most qualified Football coaches in the country. He has a coaching license in Football from Scottish Football Association in Glasgow apart from being a Doctorate in Physical Education with specialisation in Football.
Director Sports, Chandigarh Administration, I.P. Sandhu (PSC) heads the operations of CFA. I.P. Sandhu is highly committed to the academy and it is one of his priority assignments as per his own words. He is directly assisted by Dr. J.P.S. Sidhu, Joint Director Sports, Chandigarh Administration in all matters regarding administration and training of the academy. Dr. J.P.S. Sidhu has the distinction of being worked as Sports Psychologist with Indian Hockey Senior Men team for more than two years. CFA has twenty persons including hostel warden, administrative officer, adviser associated with it full time to facilitate its various activities.
Dr. Shaji Prabhakaran apart from being coach of CFA, he is more like a local guardian for the young residential boarders of CFA. He informed that talks are going on with probable sponsors and soon CFA may have sound corporate financial backing. As per his words, "without the corporate support many of the advanced equipment and facilities like testing laboratory, sports medicine section, etc., cannot be created and procured for the CFA players, which is absolutely necessary for producing quality players of International standard". There have been some generous contributors like Bank of Punjab, which has helped CFA by shelving out Rs. 10 lacs. The induction of the next batch of students is also not possible within the current budget and it may take another 5-6 years for fresh induction. Also, Dr. Shaji said that CFA would ensure that when the players graduate, they would be thoroughbred professionals in true sense. Hence emphasis is being given on all round growth of the young lads involving media communication, personality development, apart from mental and physical aspects of the game. Special training is imparted on Individual and Team Psychology, Speed Development, Tactical Knowledge, Nutritional Assessment, Technical Ability, Sports Movement, Performance Analysis, Fitness Testing, Injury Prevention, Soccer History.

Exposure trips
The young boys of CFA obviously do not get much match practice in North. The teams in the same age group from Delhi and other areas in North are easy meat for the CFA lads. The competitive aspect in these matches does not provide the correct yardstick to judge the growth and progress of CFA. So, recently CFA came to Calcutta, the Mecca of Indian Football to test their soccer wizardry against the best teams in their age group in Bengal. CFA came out with flying colours in this ten-day 's tour of Bengal. They played four matches against some of the best teams in the country in the same age level and won three of their four matches and drew the other match. The Calcutta trip was a great experience for these young lads, all of whom are in the age category of 11 to 14 years. They got the opportunity to meet and get a personal hearing from their idol and the superstar of Indian Football, Baichung Bhutia and the famous East Bengal coach Subhas Bhowmick. Also, they saw the stars of Indian Football in action from close quarters at the Salt Lake stadium when East Bengal was preparing for the ASEAN Cup championships at Jakarta, besides watching the champion club of India in action in the local league.
Very soon, within the next couple of months, the CFA boys will embark on a tour to U.K. to get vital European exposure. CFA will play some matches against teams in their age category in England and this will do a world of good to their confidence. They will get acquainted with some of the best coaching systems in the world. Director Sports, I.P. Sandhu is doing everything possible for the tour to happen and CFA is on the hunt for possible sponsors to materialize the tour to UK.
Chandigarh Football Academy is like a breath of fresh air in the stagnating environment of Indian Football. CFA has set the ball rolling in India for a structured scientific training regimen for kid footballers from the tender age of 9 to 10 years. Now it is up to the football administrators and ministry of sports in other states in the rest of the country to take a leaf out of CFA's book and do something meaningful in nurturing football talent in India in a world class system.