Guwahati, Nov 23: Even as the football buffs in the country are glued to their TV screens for the latest action at the FIFA World Cup , rooting for their favourite football teams and stars, the Arunachal Pradesh government is working on the ground to  introduce the ambitious Football for Schools (F4S) programme by FIFA, in collaboration with UNESCO.

The ambitious programme is set to be introduced in 200 schools of the neighbouring Himalayan state with the aim to groom budding talents in the age group of 6 to 13.

According to people connected with the FIFA initiative, the aim of the project is to contribute towards the education, development and empowerment of around 700 million children globally, while making football more accessible to both boys and girls by incorporating the popular game in the education system.

It goes without saying that football is very popular in many NE states, including Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland and Arunachal is set to join them, training youngsters through the FIFA initiative.

Arunachal education minister Taba Tedir informed that this is the first of this kind of initiative taken up by the Arunachal Pradesh government after a MoU was signed between FIFA and the Union education ministry to promote football among children.

“Every state has been asked to prepare a plan for the initiative. We held a meeting on Monday on the issue. Officers of the Education and Sports departments, and members of the Arunachal Pradesh Football Association (APFA) were present in the meeting,” he said.

He added that Arunachal Pradesh is planning to be the first state in the country to launch the football training programme in its schools. The state government  government is planning to complete the selection of the schools  by December and then invite Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to launch the programme in January next year, Tedir further stated, with the tentative dates for launching the event scheduled between January 15 and January 20 next year.

A meeting between senior officials of education and sports departments with office-bearers of the Arunachal Pradesh Football Association (APFA) was convened by the state govt on Monday, which was attended by All India Football Federation (AIFF) treasurer and APFA secretary, Kipa Ajay. He said the Centre will provide financial assistance, while FIFA will distribute the sports gear. Tedir chaired the meeting.

The crtiteria for selection of schools for the programme is that they must mandatorily have playgrounds and priority will be given to schools where the minimum enrollment is 50 to 100. The minister stated that a 20 by 30 meter playground will be enough to start the training programme. Priority is to be given to government where physical education teachers are already appointed. Tedir also informed that private schools are also likely to be selected for the programme, given the fact that sports infrastructure is available in these, sometimes more than government ones.