IndianFootball.Com Interview: ARUN NANU

In the past few months, reams of ink in the press has been expended on the issue of inducting youth and training young football players properly and professionally so that when they make it the various national sides, time and effort does not have to be spend on coaching them in the basics. Much of this recent discussion has happened due to the new Indian football coach Bob Houghton.
At IndianFootball.Com, we have been an ardent supporter of this view point since our founding in April 1998. In keeping with our stand, we chose to be active participants in the development of football talent in India, rather than just objective, third party reporters.
The Sports and Education Promotion Trust (SEPT), in Calicut is one such project where we have chosen to get involved in grass roots Indian football, not purely in the financial side of things but also on the provision of management input side of this. A total of 140 trainees have been picked out of 1,200 children that appeared for trials. The current set of training centres include Kadalundy and Koodranji (Calicut), Therattammal (Malappuram), Nadawayal, Sugandhagiri and Meppadi (Wayanad). The training program has been developed by Belgian youth coach Jozef Achtergael.
And of course, no project can succeed without the active participation of a committed leader on the ground. IndianFootball.Com is fortunate to have Arun Kumar Nanu, a leading football referee that has chosen to spearhead the challenge of nurturing young football players in Kerala.
IndianFootball.Com's Harmit Singh Kamboe caught-up with him to get to know more about the project.

Arun, please tell us about yourself, your love for football, and how and when you became a referee?

I am Arun Kumar Nanu, aged 33 years and a native of Calicut, Kerala.
An ardent football fan, I played for my College at the University level. I passed my referee exam in 1993 and became a national referee in 2005.
Presently I am working as the Calicut Branch Manager of UAE Exchange & Financial Sevices Limited, an Abu Dhabi based company engaged in Money Transfer/Currency Exchange/Travellers Cheques and other allied financial services.

How and when did the idea of this Football Academy (Football school) come to you and how long had you been refereeing prior to founding at this academy?

It all started from the email communications we had with Arunava Chaudhuri of IndianFootball.Com. I was there in their mailing list (Indian Football Supporters Club), where I followed the comments / suggestions / discussions, etc; but no one came forward to do something for the development of Indian football.
There I got in contact with Jozef Achtergael, who was there in the mailing list, we exchanged our ideas. Ultimately Mr. Achtergael came down to Calicut. Then things changed.
Please note that ours is not a football academy, we call it soccer nurseries. We start with boys below the age of 10. It will continue for 3 years and we plan to start a residential training center in 2008.

How is the academy funded and who owns it?

We have no sponsors till now. We get donations from people we know. We hope you can help us out!

What is the annual expense of the academy and how are the expenses met? How many people work at the academy on a full time and part time basis?

Our Annual budget is only Rs 3,5 lakhs (Rs 350,000). People who are working behind this project do voluntary service, we have no paid employees as of now. But once we start our residential operations then the budget amount will be much higher.

What is the maximum capacity of the academy in terms of coaches and students that can be trained at the same time? How many coaches and how many students are being trained right now? Do all students/trainees get the same training or is there a more intensive course for some trainees?

We have 140 boys at 7 different geographical locations. At all centers we have two trainers each, who are ex-football players. We bring the trainers together once in every 4 months & give them expert education under senior experienced coaches. Our technical advisor Mr. Jozef Acthergael, visits all the centers every six months & evaluates the performance. He selects the best performing boys and bring them to one place to conduct residential training for 5-7 days.

How many locations does the academy have today? Does the academy own the facilities or is it renting them?

Presently we have seven centers, while we are adding more & more.

Are there any plans on establishing new academies in the country or increasing the capacity of the existing academy?

We can do that. We have the confidence and expertise. Only financial support is required.
Our plan is to have a centre in each district of Kerala (Kerala has a total of 14 districts) first and then to have these at each state.

Do you have any tie-ups with coaches or institutions from overseas to develop both the coaches that train and the trainees. How do you ensure that the coaches remain at the cutting edge of coaching and training?

Yes we have tied-up with OHL, a leading club in Belgium. Their people will be visiting Calicut in December 2006. We got an opportunity through the German Consulate to send a coach to Leipzig in Germany to attend an advance training for grass root level coaching, for which we suggested the name of Indian youth coach Satheevan Balan, who supports us very much.

As a trainee what does a child get in terms of training and facilities from your academy?

Due to financial constraints presently we are providing only a ball, jersey, short and football shoes to each trainee.

Do you currently have any talent at the Academy which can make it not only into the Indian national team, but also big in a foreign league (either now or in the near future)?

Yes, for sure.

What are top five things (or more) that will make a dramatic impact in quality of football in India.

The AIFF should themselves conduct schools tournament.
Provide sports materials for best performing schools
Bring good youth coaches from abroad to train our school team coaches.
A residential training centre in each state for the U15 age group.
Analyse the activities of each school and give them all possible support.

Do you think that all it will take is one role model to make it from India on the global stage and then the flood gates will open? Or what is needed in your opinion?

If activities mentioned under my earlier answer are executed, then the results will follow.

Let's assume, one of your trainees is picked up by an overseas team or a local professional team - do such clubs make a lump sum payment to the academy so that development of other children can continue or are they free agents?

Yes ,we are trying that for our existence. Otherwise the whole program will die within no time.

Has an Indian football club or a company been a major supporter of your work?

Not till now.

What do you think about IndianFootball.Com and its work?

They are doing what they can.
They have very a good database and contacts worldwide, which they should use efficiently for the development of Indian football standards. I wish if they could also find sponsors for projects like ours.

Many, many thanks for all your work for the betterment of Indian football over the years and for the time taken for this interview.

the interview was conducted by Harmit Singh Kamboe (August 5, 2006)

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