Chennaiyin FC to mentor Chennai Corpn football team

CHENNAI: Even as the Greater Chennai Corporation has selected 60 students, including 20 girl students of Chennai schools, for football coaching, the civic body is in talks with Chennaiyin FC, a city-based football team playing in Indian Super League.

A Chennai Corporation official said that a coaching agency has already been appointed to train the students who are mostly from Class 6 and Class 9. "The students will be trained in three schools, where grounds are bigger, in three batches of 20 students each. The girl students will train separately. The students will be provided kits (sports uniform) with the logo of Chennai schools and Chennai Corporation, the official added.

Explaining about the involvement of Chennaiyin FC, the official said that the students will witness the training sessions of the professional players and their matches. "Witnessing the international players closely will help the students understand the game better. Procurement of kits and other items are underway. Once the kits and grounds are ready, coaching will commence," he added.

The civic body passed a resolution in 2021 to start football coaching and the initiative is a part of CITIIS (City Investments To Innovate, Integrate and Sustain) project under which the civic body is upgrading the infrastructure of the Corporation schools and providing training to teachers.

The civic body has allocated Rs 95.25 crore to implement CITIIS project. A total of 80 training sessions per school spread over a period of 11 months, totalling 240 training sessions, will be conducted.

The civic body will spend close to Rs 8 lakh to conduct the coaching sessions. Apart from the coaching expenses, the civic body will also spend on insurance cover to the selected students so that they can get treatment in case of any injury during the training. Meanwhile, the civic body has taken measures to set up a cricket ground for the use of Chennai schools, where students will be given cricket coaching.