How Bengaluru’s football youth leagues are trying to kickstart a grassroots revolution

D. Vignesh, a city lad, found The Amateur League (TAL) which provided a platform to test his football skills in an 11-vs-11 setting. With 10-12 guaranteed matches, Vignesh progressed to join the Sports Authority of India and play for India at the junior level. In 2020-21, he was part of the Mumbai City FC team that won the Indian Super League. To bridge the gap between India and advanced footballing nations, youth leagues in Bengaluru are providing 35-40 games a season for kids. These leagues have helped churn out players like Jordan Mobin Paul, Devansh Chintan and Shaurya Veer Verma who have made the jump to the Residential Academy in Ballari. However, the city lacks infrastructure and more grounds are needed for 11-vs-11 football.

Nearly a decade ago, D. Vignesh, a Bengaluru boy in his mid-teens, was on the lookout for opportunities to play football in a competitive environment. He practised at the Ozone Academy. Outside of the competitions that his institute would register for, he and his group of friends did not have many games to look forward to.

It was then that he heard of The Amateur League (TAL), which started in 2014 with the aim of giving enthusiasts a platform to test their skills in an 11-versus-11 setting. Vignesh and his mates did not have a full-fledged team, but TAL slotted him in one of the many that had signed up.

“It was the first time I played 11-a-side,” Vignesh recollects. “Otherwise, I had to be part of the C-division (run by the Bangalore District Football Association). But there, in each group, there were four teams, and you got just three games. Only if you qualified out of that group were there more chances.” In TAL, he got 10 to 12 guaranteed matches. “It was a very professional set-up, with referees and analysis. There were corporates and semi-professional teams. I think even Ashley Westwood (former coach of the city’s biggest club, Bengaluru FC) played. I understood my body better, how much load it could take, and how fit I could be.”

From there, Vignesh went on to join the Sports Authority of India and played for India at the junior level before making his debut for the senior team at the 2018 South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship. In 2020-21, Vignesh was an integral part of the Mumbai City FC team that won the Indian Super League (ISL), the top tier of Indian football.

Vignesh’s progression is what many budding footballers in India desire but can only dream of. When India hosted the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2017, it had a direct entry into the tournament by virtue of being the host. But to assemble the team, coaches appointed by the All India Football Federation (AIFF), Indian football’s governing body, had to comb the country. There wasn’t a steady pipeline of game-ready players, a feature that sets apart advanced footballing nations in Europe and South America.

It is this landscape that a few youth football leagues in Bengaluru are attempting to change. Starting in 2019, the Karnataka State Football Association (KSFA), the umbrella organisation for footballing activities in the State, began its youth leagues programme that now sees competitions in the Under-7, 9, 11, 13, 15, and 17 categories, with no fewer than 15 teams in each age group.

Also in 2019, Double Pass India, a private entity, started its Development League (DPDL) for children under 7, 9, 11, and 13. TAL, an initiative of Sports Paddock, a city-based sports management firm, began its youth leagues this year in the U-13, U-15 and U-19 groupings.