AIFF Media Team

NEW DELHI: Vision 2047, as planned by the All India Football Federation, aims to spread the beautiful game far and wide across the nation. One of the latest benefactors of this outreach is the Union Territory of Ladakh.

Previously, footballing action in Ladakh has mostly been restricted to Grassroots activities, with pretty pictures of children playing in front of towering mountains. That, however, changed last year, when the Ladakh Football Association was, for the first time, affiliated with the All India Football Federation, allowing it’s players to compete in the prestigious National football championships.

Indeed, it was a moment of pride for the people of Ladakh when their own football team, comprising of local players, was fielded in the Hero Santosh Trophy Group Stage, in the 2022-23 season. Ms Tsering Angmo, the General Secretary of the Ladakh Football Association, the first woman to be the secretary of a state football association in India, expressed that this small change altered the fabric of reality for Ladakh football.

“I am not a footballer. Rather, I am a mere administrator. But I could see it in the eyes of all of our footballers. They all had a vision in their eyes, a dream to become professional footballers one day. People were eager to watch matches, to idolise legends like Sunil Chhetri, and so on.”

For Ladakh, it is not only a matter of sending their players for the national championships, but also for them to grow the sport in a region that is sparsely populated. One advantage that the Union Territory has, however, is a strong base.

“The people of Ladakh just love football. There’s not much else to do in the form of entertainment in Ladakh, so children start playing from the age of four or five,” says Angmo.

In fact, private football tournaments have been quite the rage in Ladakh, even before the formation of the LFA back in 2018. “We were hosting a private tournament there and the current AIFF Secretary General Dr Shaji (Prabhakaran) had tweeted about the event, saying that Ladakh should have a football association. Since then, we got in touch with him, and he’s helped us massively to promote Ladakh football, and then in the formation of the association as well. We went step by step with his support and then finally got our affiliation with AIFF last year.”

Angmo herself is an athlete as well, having represented India in wushu, though after retiring from the sport, her interest has mainly been in football.

“I was mulling my options after I finished my wushu career. I could go into Wushu as well, but then I realised that I wanted to help more people. Football was the perfect sport to do that,” she said. Angmo has since then gone on to become the General Secretary of the Ladakh Football Association, and is currently the only woman in such a position at any State Association that is affiliated with the AIFF.

The former wushu international feels that right now it is important to increase participation in various national level tournaments for Ladakh, and later to go on and build on that.

“Right now we just have to ensure participation so that our players get the experience. They could not dream of becoming professionals before, as there was no path for them to grow through. Now the path is there, but there’s also a lot of competition, so hopefully, they will grow with time,” she said.