4-year plan to develop grassroots football
Mahogany Football Club c/o Bamboola, 73 Venkatakrishna Road R A Puram, Chennai 600028 +91 9884480480 +91 44 42133282 2013…2017
For a better football playing community, we need to build on the three main contributors to the game, viz., coaches, players and the volunteers. This document outlines a work plan to identify coaches to further enhance their skills, identify talent at the younger age and encourage the sports-loving people to volunteer for the developmental programs.
Executive summary To improve the quality of football played in our country, we need a complete overhaul starting from the bottom. Since, the football system lacks a well defined structure for aspiring players to pursue it seriously, in spite of being interested and talented, majority of young players do not get the support if they wish to play football or work in the football system for a career. This, in effect reduces the entertainment that is expected of a professional game and does not attract audiences to the stadiums. Playing football, or for that matter any sport in our country, is believed to be a losing proposition for the reason that, it is not a highly lucrative career; the limited number of playable years and the life after football is uncertain because of poor supporting structure of the game. Hence, the efforts to improve the quality lack impetus. Of late, with the attention from Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), and Asian Football Confederation (AFC), a number of programs have been initiated for the development of grassroots football in the country, but we still lack a work plan for the districts. With the right mix of intellect, enthusiasm and experience in handling the football system, we can build a team of capable individuals who can create a better system to nurture the younger generation. We need to put efforts towards an organized system of facilities accessible to the younger generation, who, under the guidance of the educated and learned supervisors and coaches, can bring out the best in themselves. The existing system does not focus on the players of younger age to the required extent. Mahogany Football Club through its ‘Football Funday’ programs aspires to make facilities available for every football player below 10 years of age, who can just walk in to a facility and play. Such a system can develop with the combined efforts of parents, coaches, volunteers and the children. Identification of coaches, players and volunteers shall kick-start the campaign. This will be followed by the coach education programs, program for volunteers and playing programs like ‘Football Funday’ for the young players (below 10 years old). A database managing the details will be used to filter players for competitions at a later stage. The primary challenge is marketing the idea of playing football. The children are to be given more opportunities to play rather than being coached. The program brief of ‘Football Funday’ should reach each and every child/parent/coach/volunteer in the local area before February 3, 2013 for the festival to be a success. The organization of such an event would need continual resources and supplies, and we hope to get the community support in every possible way. Any kind of contribution would be of great help, whether it is drinking water for the event or mud for the ground or money for building the stands or just a pat on our back, we would be ever grateful and so would the next generation be.
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Mahogany Football Club, c/o Bamboola Play School, 73 Venkatakrishna Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028, Phone : +91 44 42133282, Mobile - +91 9884480480
Contents Understanding the local structure of play ................................................................................................ 3 Facilities .............................................................................................................................................. 3 Administrative system ............................................................................................................................. 4 Program proposal .................................................................................................................................... 6 Identification of coaches and coach education programs ..................................................................... 6 Identification of players ....................................................................................................................... 7 Identification of volunteers.................................................................................................................. 7 Training programs for the kids ............................................................................................................. 8 Football Funday! A platform for the kids to play and enjoy the game ...................................................... 9 Proposed activities ................................................................................................................................ 10 Football Funday! – Festival ................................................................................................................ 11 Team colors and ground set-up...................................................................................................... 12 Following up the new program ...................................................................................................... 14 Contribution request ............................................................................................................................. 15 Supporter listing ................................................................................................................................ 16 Annexure – 1 Program and festival cost ................................................................................................. 17
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Mahogany Football Club, c/o Bamboola Play School, 73 Venkatakrishna Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028, Phone : +91 44 42133282, Mobile - +91 9884480480
Understanding the local structure of play Children are highly influenced by their parents, relatives and other well-wishers during the initial years. Any child playing a sport is the result of multiple factors, like; the inclination of the child, inclination of the family members and other elders, cultural inclinations, availability of facilities, career prospects for the players etc., the list is endless. The local facilities provide options for the parents to enroll their children in various sporting activities. It might be a conscious decision by the parents to choose a sport or it might be any sport that is played in the neighborhood. Our social system of education lack organized sporting facilities for the younger children. Though, in the cities the focus is changing with some initiatives being taken for the younger age groups, the ideas need to be fully adopted. The avenues for the football players below 10 years are at best minimum. The educated parents in the cities search for academies where they can enroll their children into organized training. Football suffers from this lack of structure. The places that a child below 10 years of age can play football in our country can be summed up as
Neighborhood (mostly, if someone takes initiatives to bring in a ball and play) Local academies (very few) School (to a larger extent in the Games period)
We lack efficient organized systems to encourage the kids to play football. Local culture and social norms are not inclined towards regular sporting activities.
Facilities It goes without saying that we do not have proper facilities for play. We lack grounds, proper equipment and qualified personnel. For plenty of reasons, the facility/infrastructure is not in place. We have not been able to create and maintain a certain standard of facilities for our younger generation. We are dependent on individual efforts to create a facility. The existing facilities for children in the city are academies run by individuals or, a few schools where the school’s PE teacher/contracted coach handles the children. These facilities are few in number and the reach is limited. Lack of resources is another reason hindering the progressive establishment of facilities.
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Mahogany Football Club, c/o Bamboola Play School, 73 Venkatakrishna Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028, Phone : +91 44 42133282, Mobile - +91 9884480480
Administrative system In India, football is governed by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) that is the apex body to control football in the country. The State Football Associations work under the purview of the AIFF, and, in turn guide the District Football Associations.
AIFF
State FA
District FA
•National team •National clubs •Elite and Regional academies •State team •State clubs
•District team •District clubs
The parallel bodies governing sports through the Govt. of India and the State Govt. are Sports Authority of India, (SAI) and State Sports Development Authorities.
Sports Authority of India (SAI)
Sports Development Authority of Tamilnadu
School Games Federation of India
•Academic Wing •Regional Centres •Sub centres •SAI training centre •Special Area Games •Centre of Excellence •Extension centres
•Chennai (HQ) •Regional Centres •Chennai •Coimbatore •Trichy •Tirunelveli •Madurai
•Directorate of School Education •Dept. of Physical Education
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Mahogany Football Club, c/o Bamboola Play School, 73 Venkatakrishna Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028, Phone : +91 44 42133282, Mobile - +91 9884480480
The existing organizational structure of sports development in our country is not efficient and fails to address the deficiencies in performances. The reach of the sports system is limited and it is not marketed to attract the children to take up sports. Along with other sports, football has immense potential to inculcate a sporting culture amongst the younger generation. With the various sports channels showing up football matches from all over the world, the younger generation has taken a liking towards football in a big way. They talk about the English Premier League, the Spanish League, Bundesliga (German League), Serie A (Italian League) etc., among themselves in school and in the neighborhood. They wish to play like the famous players and have been developing a fancy for football. On the other side, they hardly know the status of the domestic league. I-League is the nation’s premier league and it is still to become a household name. Barring a few States in the country, the encouragement to the younger generation of children, who are below 8 years or 10 years of age, to play the game is limited. The limited resources and lack of organized football play facilities for such age groups are further deterring the parents from encouraging their children to play the game. Citing the lack of resources and organization, a number of private academies have come up in cities that caters to the children whose parents can afford the cost of such facilities. The academies are a good start for the children as they learn the game from an early age. At present, there is no system of structuring the private academies, and the governing bodies do not intervene in their operations. This helps the academies in managing their system with flexibility and adapt to the local conditions. But these academies are catering to a miniscule population of the football aspirants. The reach is limited and in effect, with all the existing organized structure, we are not able to identify the potential players in even one district properly. This is evident from the procedure of a team selection for any program or competition, as the team is selected from a pool of players who are in the vicinity of the venue of selection and who receive the information about the selections. Most of the time, this team is not the best team that a district can form, rather it is a hastily formed team. Similarly, an aspiring football coach finds it difficult to get into an organized system of coaching and is left to do things at their individual level. The lack of a connecting system is detrimental to the quality of the football played in our country. The link between the mentioned parties herein will determine as how good we can develop the football system at the local level.
Govt. Body (SAI), (SDAT)/National Body (AIFF)/State Body (TFA)/District Body (CFA)/Private Bodies (Clubs and Academies) Volunteers Existing coaches Existing players Aspiring player Aspiring coaches
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Mahogany Football Club, c/o Bamboola Play School, 73 Venkatakrishna Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028, Phone : +91 44 42133282, Mobile - +91 9884480480
Program proposal
Organizers
Volunteers
Existing Coaches
Existing Players
Aspiring Coaches Aspiring Players
The proposal is to make a comprehensive list of all football coaches and young players (under age categories) in a local area. In addition to that, a volunteer induction program is to be initiated. Volunteers will manage the programs and anyone willing to take part in football and football-related developmental work can be inducted in the team of volunteers. Football Funday is an equal opportunities organization, and we would like to have, both boys and girls playing football in equal measure. The same applies to the matter of coaches and volunteers too. We would be happy to have more girls than boys, because of the female of the species should feel that this is one of the few places in India where girls are not told that they cannot do it.
Identification of coaches and coach education programs At present, we do not have a count of the people involved in football coaching in a local area. In addition to the coaches certified by NIS, AFC or sports diplomas, there are the coaches who do not have any certification, but are experienced in handling the players. These coaches need to be listed, categorized and classified. An evaluation
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Mahogany Football Club, c/o Bamboola Play School, 73 Venkatakrishna Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028, Phone : +91 44 42133282, Mobile - +91 9884480480
system to be developed for their further training and education, which in turn, will aid better handling of young players. The basic details, like, date of birth, address, education, certification etc., would help in understanding them better. Once the listing is initiated, the coaches are to be brought together in small groups at different venues for better information flow and sharing of knowledge. The experienced and learned coaches can guide the young coaches to improve in terms of coaching and handling of younger players. After a basic evaluation of the coaches, a coach education program is to be structured by keeping the needs of the various coaches in mind. The coaches who have already undergone training programs will need to update their skills and knowledge through advanced programs, and the coaches who are yet to undergo any course, need to be provided with basic courses. Coaches’ development is handicapped by the lack of a structured coach development program in the districts. The number of courses offered to a local association is very limited and that is de-motivating for the aspiring coaches. The coach education program would need serious efforts at the local level to equip the coaches with better handling and management skills.
Identification of players All the boys and girls who are below the age of 8 years, and are interested in playing football, are to be listed. This list will form the database for the tracking of players. This database will be updated periodically for additions and deletions. After a year, these players would be 9 years old, of whom, a few would have stopped playing football and a few 9-year olds would have had started. The kids who have started playing football at the age of 9 will be added to the list, which will be labeled then as ‘9 years old’ and the list would be filtered for the players who have stopped playing football. This list will help us in monitoring the geographical spread of the players and in turn, would help in matching a player to a coach. Regular monitoring will aid understanding the growth and needs of the players. The players’ database will form the foundation for the festivals and competitions.
Identification of volunteers A list of people willing to be a part of this developmental work is to be created. The volunteers will build and update the databases. They will be instrumental in managing the various programs for coaches and players. They will be managing the monitoring system and prepare reports on players and coaches. Once inducted as a volunteer, the progression would be towards being a coach or an administrator.
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Mahogany Football Club, c/o Bamboola Play School, 73 Venkatakrishna Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028, Phone : +91 44 42133282, Mobile - +91 9884480480
Training programs for the kids Aspiring players would be encouraged to play near their place of stay under the guidance of a coach or parent. Wherever the children play under the guidance of a coach, the coach can be listed and added to the database. If a child does not play with a coach, then, with the help of the coaches’ database, we can match the closest facility for the child to join a coach. If the children play with the parent or someone who is not a coach, then that parent or that someone can be inducted as a volunteer and educated for handling young players as a stopgap arrangement. Young players at Mahogany FC
@American International School, Chennai
@Bandudol club, Litchutala, West Bengal
@Milanchakra club, Litchutala, West Bengal
@ HLC International School, Chennai
@ HLC International School, Chennai
@American International School, Chennai
@ HLC International School, Chennai
@KRMM School, Chennai
@ Bamboola Play School, Chennai
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Mahogany Football Club, c/o Bamboola Play School, 73 Venkatakrishna Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028, Phone : +91 44 42133282, Mobile - +91 9884480480
Football Funday! A platform for the kids to play and enjoy the game With the list of coaches and players under preparation, the listed team of volunteers will plan for a festival. The festival will invite the coaches to bring their group of players under a particular age group to play in the festival. Parents will be encouraged to walk in to the festival with their child and take part in the festival. If it is difficult to add players into any team, they will be listed and called in for the next festival. The format of the festival is to be worked by the volunteers based on the availability of resources. The numbers of the teams are to be planned based on the limitations at the venue for accommodating a maximum number of players at a time. As prescribed by FIFA, the team size must not exceed seven for the grassroots football festivals. The venue would need a facelift and other requisites like, drinking water, first aid accessories, ambulance, equipment etc., will be arranged. An annual planning for the festivals would be done. We shall start with one ground-one festival every month. So, in a year on one ground, there would be twelve festivals. As the program grows, we can add multiple playgrounds based on the resources available. The festivals will be a great platform for the children to enjoy the game. With the participation of the coaches and volunteers, these festivals can be self-sustaining and can be done at a bare minimum cost. The festivals would act as a meeting point and an evaluative system for the children and coaches. With the festivals being a regular affair, the players, coaches and the volunteers will have something to look forward every month. A coaches’ meet shall precede the festivals. At the meet, the coaches can discuss various issues faced by them in implementing programs and the solutions to handle such issues can be worked out. The program will need the support of the local community to succeed. Awareness and encouragement are the pressing need for the event to take off. An awareness program, with the help of the local media and the various groups, would be undertaken to invite players for the festival. Your suggestions to make the festival better… -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Mahogany Football Club, c/o Bamboola Play School, 73 Venkatakrishna Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028, Phone : +91 44 42133282, Mobile - +91 9884480480
Proposed activities Volunteer listing A marketing campaign will be started for creating awareness about the new program and ‘Football Funday’. The campaign will talk about the volunteer listing exercise and subsequently the coach and player listings. 1. 2. 3. 4.
A brief write up about the festival will be distributed through the known contacts, newspaper ads, facebook.com and a few events at strategic locations like Besant Nagar Beach, Marina Beach etc. Local media will be briefed on the program. They would be requested to do a feature with a note for “Volunteer Induction Program”. A new website has been launched for the festival by the name of footballfunday.mahoganyfc.in. The site has a link to this document and forms for listing as a volunteer, coach, player or supporter. The deadline to finish the first round of volunteer listing is April 31, 2013
Coach listing 1. 2. 3. 5. 6.
The marketing campaign will also talk about the coach listing exercise for attracting the coaches to the footballfunday.mahoganyfc.in and get listed. Field survey will be done by the volunteers to search the coaches in the local area. Reference from the coaches will be taken to contact more coaches. Schools will be contacted for getting the profile of the football coaches in the schools. The deadline to finish the first round of coach listing is April 31, 2013
Player listing 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
The marketing campaign will encourage the parents to register their children through footballfunday.mahoganyfc.in. Word-of-mouth publicity will help in creating awareness about the festival and in turn, listings. Volunteers will publicize the festival in the local area through field activities and events. Newspaper articles would have to be organized for creating awareness amongst the public. Letters detailing the program will be sent to the schools for further communicating to the children and their parents. The schools will be encouraged to participate in the festival with a school team. Local academies will be encouraged to participate in the festival with a team. The deadline to finish the first round of player listing is April 31, 2013.
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Mahogany Football Club, c/o Bamboola Play School, 73 Venkatakrishna Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028, Phone : +91 44 42133282, Mobile - +91 9884480480
Football Funday! – Festival Venue and date of the festival The venue for the first festival will be St. Louis Institute for the Deaf and Blind, Gandhinagar, Adyar, Chennai 600020. We have requested the school to provide the venue for the festival free of cost. In case any fee is demanded, we will negotiate that.
Makeover of the venue The ground will be cleaned and marked. In addition, the following tasks will be taken in a phased manner. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Barricades are to be made for placing around the playground [70 X 12 feet (length) X 1.5 feet (height)]. Twelve to sixteen small sized goalposts will be required for six to eight small courts [2 metre (length) X 1 metre (height)]. Seating galleries are to be constructed around the playground [6 x 20 feet (length) X 4 steps X {1 feet (height)}]. Covering nets will have to be placed around the ground (2 X 40 feet X 20 feet) The playground will be marked into 6 to 8 small courts designated as ‘Match Court’ and ‘Drill Court’. Space on the playground will be marked for drinking water stands, shade for the players, first aid stand, ambulance etc. An announcement system will be arranged for communicating with the participants within the playground.
Listing and matching the players, coaches and volunteers at the venue The walk in players, volunteers and coaches will be listed on the spot and accommodated in the program. A total of twelve to sixteen teams can be accommodated depending on the size of the playground. For small playgrounds like St. Louis, six courts will be ideal and hence, twelve teams. A total of eighty four players can play at a time with seven players in each team. These twelve teams will be handed over to twelve coaches and twelve volunteers. The coaches and volunteers will be handling the teams for the program.
The festival day – February 03, 2013 Coaches and players are to reach the venue by 8:30 am. After allotment of all the players to the teams, teams will be marked to play their first match at a particular court. For the matches, there will be 5 players from each side on the field and 2 will be on the bench to be substituted. The players can be substituted at any point of time without the interference of the referee. The duration of each match will be of 14 minutes, and halftime will be at 7 minutes. At the half time, the teams will change sides. Once a match is over, one set of six teams will move anticlockwise and the other set of six teams will move clockwise to the adjacent court. The program would start at 9:00 am and end by around 11:00 am.
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Mahogany Football Club, c/o Bamboola Play School, 73 Venkatakrishna Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028, Phone : +91 44 42133282, Mobile - +91 9884480480
Team colors and ground set-up All the players will be given a red color “Football Funday” T-shirt and the players of six teams out of twelve teams would be given green color bibs to wear over their “Football Funday” T-shirt. The teams wearing bibs and the teams not wearing the bibs would be the opponents. The six courts will be arranged in the following manner. Teams
Game Team 4 V 10
Drill Team 3 & 9
Supporters’ Banner
Supporters’ Banner
Teams
Teams 1 to 6 would move in clockwise direction after the completion of a match or drill. Teams 7 to 12 would do so in the anti-clockwise direction. For a team, a game will be followed by a drill. Drinking water stand and the first aid kit stand will be placed in the ground for easy access. A coordinator will oversee the program from the center and will direct the volunteers and
Water
First Aid
coaches in case of any issue.
Gallery
Gallery
Game Team 2 V 8
Drill Team 5 & 11 Coordinator
Water
Team 1 & 7 Drill
Teams
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Team 6 V 12 Game
Supporters’ Banner
Supporters’ Banner
First Aid
Teams
Mahogany Football Club, c/o Bamboola Play School, 73 Venkatakrishna Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028, Phone : +91 44 42133282, Mobile - +91 9884480480
We expect more than hundred children and approximately two hundred parents at the festival. The children would be encouraged to wear T-shirt, shorts, socks and shoes for the festival. It will be ideal if they are given football boots, but it is not mandatory; they can wear any sports shoe. Galleries will be arranged for the parents to be seated and enjoy the festival. The coaches and volunteers would handle the program with utmost care towards safety and fair play. The program would be a mega event for the children and would attract a lot of attention from the neighborhood. The local media would be invited for covering the program. This event will be an example of a desired way of encouraging the children to play. Rather than a coaching clinic, this will be a place for the young kids to enjoy playing. The facility will be set up and be left for the kids to entertain themselves and others with their involvement in the game.
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Mahogany Football Club, c/o Bamboola Play School, 73 Venkatakrishna Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028, Phone : +91 44 42133282, Mobile - +91 9884480480
Following up the new program The festivals will encourage the children to play in their neighborhood. The network of coaches and players will help in monitoring the progress of each other. The volunteers will keep the cycle of events moving and eventually an organized culture of football will develop.
Spotting the talented players With the first round of listings completing by April 2013, the database of players, coaches and volunteers will be used to identify the talented players and induct them into a support system for further development of their skills and game play. During the months of May and June, a number of summer camps are conducted in the city and that will be an ideal time to check on the identified players and monitor their progress over a period of 2 months. Once the players are identified and have been monitored for the progress based on the training undergone, next level of training can be designed for the selected boys and passed on to their coaches. This group of selected boys can be divided into different teams and be played in a festival especially organized for them. Continual monitoring system will make sure that their basic needs and developmental requirements are understood and attempts will be made to fulfill them. The boys would be playing in the festivals for the rest of the year as organized from time to time. Next year, the second round of listings would start and follow the same cycle.
Developmental program for coaches After the first round of listings, the prospective coaches will be identified and will be supported with various coach education programs. The coaches would be given basic training material during the months of May and June 2013 to implement the program during the summer camp. Once the camps are over, they would be evaluated and selected for first level training program in the month of June 2013. The training program will be designed based on the inputs from the coaches and the readily available courses. The cost of the training program will be borne by the organizers as an expense for the festival. The coaches will participate in two detailed coach education course and one refresher course every year apart from the meets before the festivals.
Training program for volunteers A separate volunteer training program would be initiated to guide the volunteers to manage programs. Volunteers will be inducted in two phases during a year, once in April and next in October. The volunteer training programs would be conducted in the following month of closing the listing. A detailed volunteer training program will be designed with the help of the coaches and parents.
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Mahogany Football Club, c/o Bamboola Play School, 73 Venkatakrishna Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028, Phone : +91 44 42133282, Mobile - +91 9884480480
Contribution request We need your support in every possible way for the program to be a success.
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Mahogany Football Club, c/o Bamboola Play School, 73 Venkatakrishna Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028, Phone : +91 44 42133282, Mobile - +91 9884480480
Supporter listing Name
Residential Area
Email id
Telephone Number
Signature
Comments
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Mahogany Football Club, c/o Bamboola Play School, 73 Venkatakrishna Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028, Phone : +91 44 42133282, Mobile - +91 9884480480
Annexure – 1 Program and festival cost Expense head Marketing campaign for Listing and Event
Amount
A Brochure/ flyers/balloon printing B Print/television/radio ads C Banner printing and placement D Website E Promotional Events Ground related expenses for the festival A Cleaning and leveling the ground B Galleries C Markings D Canopies E Water F First aid, paramedics and ambulance G Barricades H Goals and nets I Balls J Announcement system Player support A Football Funday T-shirts and bibs B Token of appreciation Coach support A Kits for the coaches B Study material and stationery C Conveyance D Remuneration/ token of appreciation Volunteer support A Kits for the volunteers B Study material and stationery C Conveyance D Token of appreciation
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Mahogany Football Club, c/o Bamboola Play School, 73 Venkatakrishna Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028, Phone : +91 44 42133282, Mobile - +91 9884480480
