AIFF Media Team

NEW DELHI: FIFA F4S (Football For Schools), in collaboration with Ministry of Education, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship of Govt. of India (MoE), All India Football Federation (AIFF), and Sports Authority of India (SAI), is set to conduct a Capacity Building/ Train-the-Trainer Programme from October 2 to 6, across three different cities of India – Sambalpur, Bengaluru, and Pune – to Master Train 300 Coach Educators representing Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS), AIFF, and SAI from 28 States and eight Union Territories of India.

FIFA President Mr Gianni Infantino had, on October 30, 2022, the day of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Final, co-signed an MoU with the MoE, and AIFF, to launch the F4S programme across India with a goal of reaching 25 million school children throughout the country.

The Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India, declared Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) as the Nodal Agency for the F4S Programme to implement Football for Schools in India and reach out to 2.5 crore students in 1.4 lac schools in a phased manner spread over four years. 

To implement the programme, the Ministry of Education, Govt. of India formed a National Steering Committee and Executive Committee consisting of its Institutions like the Department of School Education & Literacy (DoSE&L), Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE), Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) & Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) along with AIFF & SAI. 

FIFA, AIFF, DoSE&L - MoE and SAI are now working alongside the State Education Depts to distribute over a Million Size 4 Adidas footballs in all 789 districts of India ensuring coverage of NVS’, KVS’, State Education Department run schools, CBSE affiliated schools, and other Central Government Schools in all districts of India over the coming months. 

AIFF introduced F4S & Life Skills as a part of their Vision 2047 and their new Grassroots Programme, Blue Cubs, designed to foster the holistic development of kids aged 4 to 12. F4S and Life Skills learning is now a part of AIFF’s Blue Cubs Leaders Grassroots Certification Programme.

The FIFA F4S team is also set to introduce the free Football for Schools mobile application to promote life skills learning through the beautiful game. F4S App is an unconventional mode of delivering educational messages through hundreds of hours of video tutorials in conducting grassroots football coaching sessions for children aged 4 to 14.

AIFF Secretary General, Dr Shaji Prabhakaran, said, "F4S is an important project for AIFF, and with the plan to train 300 Master Trainers by FIFA from 2nd October, we will be ready to roll out the project with the individual schools at a faster pace.

"We take this opportunity to express our gratitude and thanks to the Ministry of Education, Govt of India and all other partners for this collaboration to impact football at the grassroots level through F4S."

Mr Mulrajsinh Chudasama, Chairperson of the Grassroots Committee, and member of the F4S Executive Committee, said, “We have a dream to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, and we are sowing the seeds to achieve this dream through the F4S programme so that football can reach the remotest schools in villages across India. The Master training programme will educate and boost the confidence of a chain of trainers coming from various states by spreading knowledge.”