Chandigarh is a quaint little city situated on the foothills of the mighty Himalayas and over the years, it has churned out many sportspersons who have brought the highest laurels to our country.
The ‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh and his son Jeev, our sole individual Olympic gold winner Abhinav Bindra, and cricketing greats such as Kapil Dev and Yuvraj Singh are just a few examples of sporting icons that Chandigarh has given us.
Another story that has been brewing in City Beautiful of late has been of the Minerva Academy Football Club, which is the city’s first ever professional club to play at the national level and along with Lonestar Kashmir, it is the only club from north India in the country’s footballing divisions.
In just their first season in the I-League 2nd Division, they currently lie in second place behind Goan giants Dempo and with four games left to play, they are genuine contenders for promotion to the I-League top division next season.
On Friday, they swept aside a strong Gangtok Himalayan SC team by a comfortable 2-0 margin, as Taranjit Singh and Ramandeep Singh scored in either half. Playing in front of their home crowd at the Sector 17 Stadium, the Minervans clinched the three points with a clinical display.
On the same day, their U-15 side was crowned champions of India in the Nike Premier Cup as they beat Royal Wahingdoh in the final. We at Sportskeeda caught up with Ms. Henna Bajaj, who is a director at the club, as she spoke at length about the history of the academy and its future ambitions.
The Minerva Academy was founded in 2005 for aspirants to the Armed Forces and gradually opened up a cricket and football section. Before you would know it, the football team was winning tournaments and churning out players of the highest quality.
Sehnaj Singh and Sandesh Jhingan are both established internationals for India and have come through the Minerva ranks during their formative years. Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, who now plies his trade in the Norwegian top flight, was also associated with the academy.
"After we won the state championships, the CFA (Chandigarh Football Association) recommended our name to the AIFF as a prospective team for the I-League. We then received a huge list of criteria that we had to fulfill to play in the 2nd division, such as getting incorporated, the team’s youth set-up, infrastructure requirements, etc. One-by-one, we ticked off the points on the list and here we are! It is a long road ahead for us and we are glad that we have taken the first few steps,” said Ms. Bajaj.
Two teams from 2nd division will be promoted to I-League
It is just their first season in the second tier and they are already making waves in the league as they lie just two points off the top with four games still to play. In the six matches, they have played so far, Minerva have garnered a solid 11 points - with three wins, two draws and a solitary loss away to Dempo.
They have tied up with various academies in the region in order to recruit players and also signed experienced names such as ex-Mohammedan midfielder Bala Al-Hassan. The focus, however, remains on promoting the youth, as four U22 players started for Minervans in the game against Gangtok.
Another heartening sight was of the fans who came out to watch the side play. Ms. Bajaj said, "The number of supporters at the stadium has increased with every passing game and we wish to involve more and more people with the club and generate a solid fan base. Our resources being limited, we can only use social media to spread the word and get people to the stadium. Hopefully with the right results, we can get more coverage and that will help increase attendances for our home games.”
While things have started off well for the club, the future of league football in the country looks uncertain to a certain extent as the ISL and I-League merger lined up for 2018 comes into the frame. The Minerva management want to take on things as they come, but Ms. Bajaj admitted that there is a degree of uncertainty surrounding the footballing ecosystem.
“It looks like the AIFF wants to delay the merger as much as possible. We have received no official word from them with regard to the news of the merger and what will happen to us. We are not even clear about what the system for promotion to the first division for next season is – whether second place is enough or not!”
