Satyanarayan – KSFA looking to ensure more players from Karnataka play in the ISL

The potential of football in Karnataka has not been realised for some time now. The state has had very little representation at the national level, in the I-League and in the Indian Super League (ISL) in the last few years in terms of players from the region.

In fact, only two players based out of Karnataka featured in the ISL last season – Hyderabad FC duo Shankar Sampingiraj and Mangaluru-born Nikhil Poojary who spent most of his formative years in Mumbai. Karnataka State Football Association (KSFA) Secretary M Satyanarayan emphasised on the federation’s vision to provide a platform for upcoming talent and ensure more players from the state play at the top level.

“We are putting some plans in place because we want more players from our state to play in the ISL. Right now, we just have two players,” he said.

“We are also looking to give a boost at the grass-root level and conduct more baby leagues. Richard Hood, who is with Bengaluru United has done a lot of work to uplift our grassroots development programme.

“We have made it mandatory for all Super Division and the first division clubs to ensure that two juniors – U21 players play in the playing 11. This means that they should recruit at least four such players. With the 14 Super Division and 10-12 A Division teams, we will straight away have about 80-100 U21 players playing the top leagues.

The KSFA also wants to see better performance at the highest level in the Santosh Trophy – a title that has eluded the state since 1971. Karnataka did well in the qualification stage this year and topped a group that also contained Telangana and Puducherry. But the final round was put on hold due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Satyanarayan said – “In the Santosh Trophy, five of the 20 have to be U21. So, we will get some good players who will gain experience from playing in these tough leagues. The Khelo India U21 is another good avenue for these players.

“In our local system, after the U15 level, there is no avenue for these boys. There is no U18 level and so we are planning to start it. Once they do the decentralisation (AIFF to hand responsiblity of conducting youth leagues to the states), we want to do U13, U15 and U18 tournaments. The boys who will play for teams in the U18 leagues will then get openings in the big clubs. If they play for 2-3 years, then they will also become better players.

“In our Santosh Trophy team from last season, barring the goalkeeper and captain who were about 29, the average age was just 22. We last won it in 1971 and are determined to try and win that.

“We have spotters who watch all the games of the Super Division and the A Division. Then they make a list of about 60-70 players. If we see some good talent from the B and C divisions, we call them. We had a long camp of about two months this time. The boys played very well and we won both our South Zone matches. The boys were looking forward to the final round but now that might not happen (due to the pandemic).”

The KSFA Secretary spoke about two initiatives aimed at nurturing local talents that will kick off when the restrictions are lifted. The federation is looking to have Super Division clubs venture into the football pockets of the city and train the talented youngsters.

A similar approach to acquiring talented youngsters from different districts was also discussed.

“Last month we asked new clubs to come up in the C division. As of today, we have 60 new clubs who have enrolled.

“Our president is keen that all 30 districts have good leagues. Earlier it was just 10-11. Now it has gone up to 19 districts. We want to change the constitution because according to the AIFF constitution, you need 10 clubs to form a district association. But what we are telling is even if you have seven clubs, we will call you an associate district. You start with six or seven clubs. Once you have 10 clubs, we will give you a full district association status. We want all districts to start leagues.

“We had a webinar with the Super Division and A Division sides which had the likes of Bengaluru FC, Ozone, Bengaluru United, Kickstart and so on. I expressed to them that we want to see more players from Bengaluru.

“The boys in some of the football pockets in Bengaluru are highly skilled but they don’t have organised training. I have asked the Super Division clubs to adopt one area each and send one of their coaches for at least three days a week for the whole year. The clubs have wholeheartedly come forward.

“Most of these clubs have academies and for them, this will be a good supply route of players. They don’t have to bring kids from the North-East and put them up in schools here. Our own boys will fill in for those players.

“The aim is to see more of our players in the ISL. They have the footballing skills but must improve their life skills. At 18-19 they are in the state team and then maybe the Indian camp and then they become wayward. That is something I did in my presentation to AIFF. We want to have classes on life-skills for these young players so they know that they can be in the ISL if they work hard.

“We have done a lot of planning but unfortunately Covid-19 has pushed us back.”

Satyanarayan also revealed that the KSFA are committed to developing women’s football in the state as well.

“I also told the district teams that if they want to play in the inter-district tournament, they must have a ladies’ team. It is okay if it is seven-a-side to start with. We have girls from Mangaluru and Belgaum playing in the state side right now,” he concluded.