After receiving a heart-warming response for the first edition of Hero India Super League (ISL), Nita Ambani, the Founder and Chairperson of Football Sports Development Limited,aims to make Indian football the winner. Reliance Foundation has progressed towards this with launching the soul of ISL – the grassroots programme.
ISL grassroots development programme
Nita Ambani along with Superstar, Salman Khan, recently launched the ISL grassroots development programme on 7th December, 2014. The programme is launched to train young footballers in the country to nourish their talents and teach them best practices in football. It aims to reach the mark of one million youngsters in the first year and give a platform to the youngsters to boost football across the nation. Ambani said, “We have launched the grass roots programme last Sunday. We aim that with the beginning of the next season, we reach out to half a million children.”
The programme is designed to train the youngsters and select the best ones for the next step. The most talented kids from the age group of 10 to 13 years will be given the Reliance Foundation’s Young Champ scholarship, which, apart from football expenses, will also cover their education fees. These footballers will then be given further training, which will help them to join the league of top footballers. “Reliance Foundation will help select the top talent and support them with full-time Residential Scholarships for their education and for the football development,” she added. This will help to shape the next generation of Indian footballers.
Ambani’s views on seeing the response for ISL
Nita Ambani expressed her joy on witnessing overwhelming response for ISL. Ahead of the Atletico de Kolkata (ATK) and FC Goa’s first leg semi-final at the Salt Lake Stadium at Kolkata, she said, “It’s just so wonderful to see the response that ISL has received, and football has received more than anything else. Fans have come out for our support in huge numbers. Not only in stadiums but also in the social media, they are lending their heart-felt support for the game. It’s been really heart-warming. I had come here during the gala opening, and now I have come back for the semi-final.”
Nita Ambani wishes to take ISL on the top. She wants to ensure that ISL grows from strength to strength in coming years. She said,”This is just the beginning. We want to better ourselves year after year and see that football wins in the end.”
Her residential city, Mumbai being all set to host the summit clash of the first edition on October 20, Nita Ambani said that they do not want to leave any stone unturned to make it all the more successful.”This being the first year, every day has been a learning process for us. We want to see that the final is conducted in an efficient way so that both the teams can play in a best possible way,” she further added.