Recognizing it’s efforts of developing football at the grassroots level, the Subroto Mukherjee Sports Education Society (SMSES) has been announced as the recipient of the ‘Sports For Development under Rashtriya Kreeda Puratsahon Puraskar’ award by the Sports Ministry. The SMSES, due to their unique Subroto Cup Football Tournament, has helped the development of football in the country.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports recently announced that the ‘Sports For Development’ award will be conferred on SMSES along with the other yearly sports prizes like the Arjuna Award, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, and more.
Ever since its inception in 1960, the Subroto Cup, named after the late Air Marshall Subroto Mukherjee, has time and again ventured into unchartered territory to ensure every child plays football, irrespective of race, caste, or gender.
The growth and growth of the Subroto Cup
A look at the number of participating schools from the inaugural edition to now highlights the monumental growth made by them as the unique tournament now hosts 34,000 teams, an exponential growth from 50 schools which took part in 1960. This was made possible, largely due to the HRD Ministry’s order of making it compulsory for every school in the country to participate in order to touch as many young lives as possible through the beautiful game.
The Subroto Cup, conducted by the Indian Air Force, has made a major impact in Indian football. Legendary footballers like Bhaichung Bhutia, Shyam Thapa, Bijen Singh, and Parimal Dey are just a few of the Subroto Cup graduates who went on to make India proud.
The current team also is littered with players who have grown up playing in the tournament – Robin Singh, Jakichand Singh, and Nirmal Chhetri are just three of many examples. So, it is safe to say that the tournament is second to none when one is discussing about the things that have contributed the most to the growth of Indian football.
Showing their Pan-India presence, the Subroto Cup became the first all-India tournament to be held in the remote islands of Andaman & Nicobar Islands. To top it off, international participation was encouraged in order to increase the standards of the competition. Teams from Brazil, Ukraine, United Kingdom, South Korea, Sweden, Israel, Afghanistan, UAE and plenty of other countries have since been involved in this 56-year-old cup competition.
Being the pioneers in Indian football, the organizers stuck true to their motto of making every child feel involved by introducing the U-17 category for girls in 2011. Since then, competition for girls in the U-14 category has also been introduced and the tournament has seen girl teams from neighbouring countries participate as well.
The arrival of Pele
One of the campaigns that the organizers are most proud of and which can take the sport to ever corner of the country has undoubtedly been the Khelo Football initiative. SMSES insists that the Subroto Cup exists to ensure all children play football, no matter their creed, gender, or caste and the Khelo Football initiative embodies that philosophy perfectly by giving every child the chance to showcase their talent.
The icing on the cake, however, was applied in the 56th edition of the tournament. In 2015, the organizers managed to rope in, arguably, the greatest footballer of all time – Pele – to come to India and be a part of this unique extravaganza. The legendary Brazilian footballer, who entered the subcontinent after a gap of 38 years spoke highly of the tournament, highlighting the work it is doing in the development of the sport in India.
With increased participation, prize money and scholarships, the Subroto Cup is continuing to provide kids with the perfect platform to make it big in the world of football. Here’s hoping that the award, deservedly, conferred on them propels them to further heights and take India to the pinnacle of the sport.
