Why Tata Football Academy are still setting the standard for youth development

For 27 years Tata Football Academy (TFA) has been the benchmark for youth development in Indian football and that remains the case even today despite initiatives from the AIFF, corporates and clubs to come up with academies.

Earlier this year the TFA’s long-term commitment towards Indian football was recognised by the AIFF in a special awards function. On a recent visit to TFA in Jamshedpur, Sportskeeda caught up with Mr M R Bhalla, who retired from the post of Senior Manager (Sports) on May 31 after four years in charge, to get an idea as to why the academy remains the best in youth development.

“It has been a very enriching experience for me at TFA. I have tried to bring changes in line with the best practices. We have to see how sustainable the other initiatives in youth development are. For 27 years we have put the best practices and our commitment towards the development of Indian football at youth level has been unparalleled.

“We have the best facilities not only in terms of infrastructure but also looking after the overall development of the boys. We are located in a place where the township provides facilities for other aspects of development such as education. The foundation of our success was laid by the likes of Chuni Goswami and Arun Ghosh and we have only tried to build on it progressively,” Bhalla told Sportskeeda during an exclusive chat.

One of the key reasons behind TFA’s success has been their ability to adapt with time and a proof of the same was the tie-up that they made with England’s Sheffield United. As a part of the tie-up, the cadets are sent on exposure trips to Sheffield while coaches from the English club devise training methods and keep visiting the academy to monitor the progress of the budding footballers.

“Previously we didn’t have enough exposure in terms of the best training methods and practices. Following the tie-up with Sheffield United we were exposed to a lot of technicalities. In the past we were only limited to coaches who had previous playing experience but with the arrival of Sheffield we had coaches who are constantly upgrading themselves.

“Thanks to Sheffield sports science was introduced in TFA. The first initiative was to hire a physical trainer which was unheard of previously in TFA. We started having specialists in goalkeeping, physiotherapy etc. Then we started looking into nutrition as well and pretty soon we will have video analysis. Whatever best is possible we are trying to garner that for TFA,” he said.

M R Bhalla

As a further reminder of TFA’s dominance in youth development, the academy secured the youth I-League title this time. They won the trophy without losing a single match and more importantly the team lived up to the academy’s philosophy of playing attractive football.

“There was a period when other academies, state associations started posing a challenge for us. We had a dip in our performances around 2010. Of course that year we entered a tie up with Sheffield United where there coaches would come periodically. We realised that wasn’t enough and hence started involving Sheffield on a permanent basis. Their coaches started devising a training program with heavy documentation process where every training session was recorded and reviewed.

“We were able to devise a process where the focus was on improving the basic skills of the boys. Winning the youth I-League is a result of our hard work. What was more pleasing was the way in which we played in that tournament. No team was close to us and we can only build on such a level of performance.

“Our team had a mixture of juniors and seniors with more representation from juniors. So because of this league the progression of the next batch of seniors has started much earlier, which is a very encouraging sign,” Bhalla opined.

The seniors have graduated and almost all the cadets of the batch, which was the 11th of the academy, have already got professional contracts at clubs around the country. The next batch looks all set to emulate their predecessors in terms of success rate of getting clubs but Bhalla admitted that the next step for TFA is to feature in the I-League with the possibility of Tata taking up a club.

“I think it’s (playing in the I-League) a necessity now and no longer an option. Due to commercialisation guidelines of FIFA and AFC our boys miss out on competing in the best competitions like the I-League and Federation Cup. From our side it’s a CSR venture and not a commercial one but there have been discussions within the management to find a solution. I think in the future we could be taking up a club with TFA attached to it but how and when exactly will it happen I don’t know,” he concluded.