JAMSHEDPUR: The number of cadets graduating from the Tata Football Academy (TFA) and being absorbed in various national teams every year was in two digits earlier but has now come down to a single digit in recent times.
Expressing concern over the development, the vice-president (corporate services) of Tata Steel and chairman of the board of management of TFA, Chanakya Chaudhary, said the matter needs to be addressed immediately.
He said, “When TFA was launched in 1987, the number of similar football academies was only a handful but with time, more competitors have come up in the market every year and the number of cadets graduating from these academies has multiplied to a large extent.”
Chaudhary, however, said TFA will take all steps to ensure that more cadets get a chance to get into the national and club-level teams. He pointed out that the Indian Super League (ISL) is helping a lot of young footballers achieve their dreams.
TFA has a four-star accreditation rating by The All India Football Federation (AIFF), one short of the five-star rating, as it does not have facilities to train women cadets. Chaudhary was, however, optimistic that the academy will have the infrastructure to train women footballers soon.
Addressing the 14th convocation of TFA earlier on Monday, Chaudhary said the graduating batch comprised 23 cadets from 11 states from across the country. He had said, “I extend my heartiest congratulations to every member of the 2022 graduation batch on reaching this all-important milestone. Sports has always been an integral part of Tata Steel's philosophy on nation-building.”
Notably, as many as 252 cadets have graduated till date from TFA out of which 148 of them have represented the country so far. Of them, 24 have captained the Indian football teams in various age group competitions.
In the current Indian Super League (ISL) season, 21 former cadets of TFA are playing for different clubs. Former cadets, Deepak Mandal and Subrata Paul, have been conferred with the Arjuna Award.
