HMC with district police join hands to open training camps to train footballers

Kolkata: In the backdrop of FIFA Under-17 Football World Cup, Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) is planning to come together with the district's city police to set up a football training camps to provide a better platform for footballers from the district.

It may be mentioned that districts including Howrah and Hooghly is having a history of producing star footballers who have played in different famous football clubs in Kolkata including East Bengal and Mohun Bagan.

With several initiatives being taken by the Mamata Banerjee government in the past six years to ensure improvement of infrastructure for sports and culture, the football culture has once again seen a revival in Bengal.

Now, HMC has come forward and is planning jointly with the Howrah City Police to set up football training camps where selected footballers will be trained with special attention so that they can achieve the goal of playing super division.

Dr Rathin Chakraborty, Mayor of HMC, said: "We have received a proposal to set up a football training camp in the district and we are seriously considering the proposal."

He added: "There was a preliminary discussion with the top brass of the Howrah City Police in this connection and further discussions will be held to give shape to the entire project."

Eminent footballers including Goutam Sarkar and Bidesh Bose have floated the proposal before the civic body and the police to take up the initiative to set up training camps that will help enriching the children in the district.

At present there are several clubs in the district where children — both boys and girls — go for

football training. Setting up of the football camp by HMC and police will help them to get a platform where they can showcase their talent to get a break in the city's well-known club, which is quite crucial at a certain point of their career for a bright future.

Though the venue is yet to be finalised, there are possibilities of organising the same at the playground situated in Howrah Police Line or the stadium of HMC.

Children from different parts of the districts including the rural areas would also get an opportunity to practice football in the training camp.

It may be mentioned that the Howrah City Police had organised a rally on Saturday evening in which Arup Roy, the state Co-operation minister, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Minister of State for Youth Service and Sports, D P Singh, Commissioner of Howrah police commisionerate and many veteran footballers including Satyajit Chatterjee were present in the programme in which footballs were also distributed among the football clubs.