Arup Das : "We are very grateful to Arsenal for their support"

My time in India is now over. The final goodbye was not the easiest part of the trip after getting so attached to kids, coaches, groundmen and all the staff there. Before leaving I wanted to make sure that you, blog's readers, know a bit better Arup. Arup Das started IYSA (India Youth Soccer Association) in 2000 in the country of cricket when football was "nothing" according to him. He stopped his career to dedicate his life to the kids in Delhi. He is for them a bit of a dad, a coach, a manager. Each day is full of passion, intense discussions and passes on the ground...

How did you come up with the idea of IYSA ?

The idea came up in a discussion between myself and another Trustee of IYSA in the year 2000. At that time there were no youth football leagues or coaching programs for children and young players. We formed IYSA so that we could give opportunities to children to learn and play football. IYSA became possibly India's second youth football development organisation after the Tata Football Academy (TFA) based in Jamshedpur.

What did you do before IYSA ?

I worked in advertising for 7 years. But football had always been a part of my life. I was in my school and university football teams and played on either wing.

What are the main changes since you started IYSA ?

IYSA's first project was setting up an Under 11's Mini League in 2001 for 70 players. By 2005 the League grew to 900 players from U7 to U17, included girls and underprivileged players. The IYSA Mini Soccer League would run on Sundays every year from October to April.

Matches were held in Stadiums, Schools and College fields. However in 2007, many of Delhi's stadiums and sports facilities were closed to renovate them for 2010 Commonwealth Games, the IYSA Mini League had to shut down due to the lack of fields.

In 2009, we applied to the Delhi Government for a field and received permission to setup a coaching program for Government school boys.

In 2010, IYSA started the New Delhi Josh Academy at a Government facility in Vasant Vihar and currently trains 120 boys from economically weaker sections. Coaching is after school hours on weekdays and leagues or friendly matches on weekends. (Josh is a hindi word meaning fighting spirit).

One of the highlights of the program is the 5 year ongoing partnership with Arsenal Community. Coaches from Arsenal work with IYSA from January to April annually.

The Josh Academy currently has 5 age groups, U11, U13, U14, U15 and U17. The Under 19 team graduated in 2015 after winning the Under 19 Division of the Delhi Youth League (DYL) back to back years in 2014 and 2015, beating a number of established schools and private football academies.

To summarise, IYSA initially started as an organisation running youth leagues to increase participation in football. It has evolved into coaching players and developing teams.

How has been this season so far ?

The season has been very hectic with 5 major projects.

In 2015-16, IYSA received the AIFF 1 star academy certification and participated for the first time at the National level in the AIFF U15 Youth League, Rest of India zone.

In July 2015, IYSA started a new Academy in Chennai (south India) for fishermen's children. The project is in partnership with the AMM Foundation, the charity arm of the Murugappa Group.

We helped organise and ran the CII Soccerfest at the Nehru Stadium in Delhi, a 5 a side football tournament and festival for 64 teams from Corporates, Schools and Girls teams.

IYSA hosted and participated in the Delhi Youth League and is currently in the top two of the Under 15 division.

IYSA also hosted a new batch of Arsenal Community coaches, Nicolas Hurzeler and Fabian Barahmeh who have been working with the Under 11 and Under 13 age groups.

Why Arsenal coaches ? What are the benefits ?

Arsenal is a great name in world football, having a fine tradition in playing attractive, attacking football. The association started in November 2011 when Alan Sefton, the head of Arsenal Community sent Rupen Shah, one of his many community coaches to visit and assess IYSA.

It was fate that Rupen was based in Delhi working on a project. The day Rupen visited, it just so happened, our Under 17's were playing against a number of club players from the Sports Authority of India ((SAI) Delhi team. IYSA won 2-1. Rupen said, "it was like watching an Arsenal Youth team play". The ball was played along the ground and being passed around with players running off the ball. The opposition inspite of having older players barely got a touch. The two IYSA goals were superbly taken with wingers getting in behind the defense.

Some of the players from that team who worked with Rupen, such as Ashutosh Thapliyal, Amit Bist and Deepinder Negi have all gone on to professional teams with Deepinder moving to the Indian national U16 team soon after.

Rupen also visited the IYSA 'grassroots' League for the younger U11 and U13 players which runs every Sunday. Next month, the first batch of Arsenal coaches set foot on an IYSA pitch.

Working with Arsenal coaches gives a lot of exposure and self confidence specially to the younger players. Most of these boys would never get a chance to be trained by international coaches. Arsenal gives them that opportunity.

Many of the Arsenal coaches who have worked in the IYSA program like Adam Campbell & Alikhan Popat (2012), Joshua Geddes (2015), Nicolas and Fabian (2016) have been "giving" people and that goes hand in hand with the IYSA philosophy.

We are very grateful to Arsenal for their support.

What are your next challenges ?

IYSA has always had to lease pitches and the challenge is to buy a piece of land where a sustainable project can be set up. The Prime Minister of India in his monthly radio address spoke about the need for football to be taken to villages in India. Players from rural areas are tougher, hungrier and have greater commitment. The future is in a rural project in the near future.

Any dream for the future ?

The dream has always been to build a top quality academy, develop high performance players and an exciting team.