AIFF Media Team

NEW DELHI: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) successfully conducted its first-ever Beach Soccer introductory online course on January 29 and 30, 2021. A total of 30 instructors from 14 states participated in the 2.5 days long course.

Four coach educators Suhel Nair, Marcelino Pereira, Gavin Araujo and Shekhar Kerkar were the course instructors. Earlier, they participated in the 3-day online Introductory Workshop for Beach Soccer, jointly organised by AFC and AIFF, in December 2020.

The purpose of the workshop was to bring awareness regarding Coach Education. The course also acts as a prerequisite for Beach Soccer level 1 in the future. Gavin Araujo, one of the four instructors, was overwhelmed with the response the course received.

“The participants who managed to get on the course were an enthusiastic batch, and curious to learn the insights of the game,” Auarjo said while sharing the success of the course. Araujo represented the Indian Beach soccer at the Dubai Beach Soccer World Cup Qualifiers and the Asian Beach Games in Bali, 2007. He believes with the right resources; India has a bright future in the game.

Mr Savio Madeira, Head of Coach Education, AIFF, shared Auarjo’s thoughts regarding formalised education. “Formalised education is the only way forward for all learning and Beach Soccer is no different. As Head of Coach Education, I always encourage coaches to attend formalised courses as it gives a better understanding of the game as well as provides valuable inputs on how to deal with players,” Madeira said.

“With Sir Savio Madeira leading the way for us and bringing the courses down to India, we can only move forward from here. I have no doubt that if we spread the coach education, work on grassroots and start organising competitions, Beach Soccer in India will emerge as one of the fastest-growing sports, and very soon will be ready to challenge the top teams in Asia. I am very optimistic that the Beach Soccer Indian team might qualify for the World Cup in the next 10 years,” the former professional player said.

Medeira, the former Blue Tigers head coach added, “The first online course which just concluded was basic. We will have additional online courses to create more awareness about Beach Soccer and popularise the game everywhere. We will also conduct physical courses as soon as AFC is ready to send in their Coach Educators down to India.”

The thirty participants are as follows:

Snedden Medeira, Bruno F Coutinho, Moizuddin Mohammed, Narayanan T, Veeresh Hareeshwar Mallabadi, Joel Richard Williams, Saravanan P, Arun Pradeep Anbazhagan, Siddharth Ganesan, Ernesto Jacques Ramos, Amitava Das, Kamlesh Kumar, Muhamed Shahid Kadapuram Madapuram Cheruth, Surya Prakash, Sandeep Kumar, Meet Ajay Mandavia, Tubin S, Masood Maqbool, Edwinraj Thomas, Rabisankar Singh Chingtham, Lakshya Beri, Vijay Kumar Bhogadhi, Sukhvinder Singh, Antonio Prestly Pereira, Jagdish Chandila, Noor Alam, Fhad Mohammed Ansari, Charlton Karl Vaz, Shane Anthony Temudo and George Louis Lawrence.