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Today, after 25 years of its foundation, Tata Football Academy (TFA) can easily be called the leading football institution in the country. The football school has been presenting Indian football at least hundreds of quality footballers in last 25 years who have donned national shirts and have been representing India’s premier football clubs over the years.
But the TFA administration has never thought of joining the main stream of the Indian football. That is, participating in the elite I-League. The academy has participated in the country’s premier tournaments like Durand Cup and IFA Shield. But it has never shown desire to take part in the country’s premier semi-professional league so far. Even, in spite of having participated in the elite I-League qualifiers, TFA hasn’t shown urge to involve itself, playing in the elite I-League.
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TFA has participated in the qualifiers of the elite I-League several times. Even in 1998-99, the academy finished third. And then in 2005-06, the academy clinched the second division I-League title, qualifying for the elite League. And despite having earned qualification for the elite edition of the League, the academy withdrew its participation from the elite edition of the league. And that was the last year TFA was seen in action in the league qualifiers.
Following Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) directives the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has been in an effort to professionalize the structure of Indian football. And according to the effort the Federation has given a mandate for each premier club in Indian football to create their commercial identity.
Following the AFC directives, the clubs that will take part in the I-League from the coming season, must fulfil their licensing criterion to get approval from the Federation. And the few major conditions set in the licensing criterion are creating commercial identity, constructing a ground and other infrastructure and launching youth development programmes in a serious manner.
TFA was stopped from participating in the elite I-League qualifiers by the AIFF due to the academy’s reluctance to fulfil the licensing criterion and join the elite League. Even if the academy would qualifies for the elite League by placing itself within the first four teams in the League qualifiers.
But after 25 years, it seems that TFA top brass has started changing its mindset. A senior executive from the academy said on condition of anonymity that they are planning to create a commercial identity of the TFA. And the company is planning to launch a club that could be named Tata Football Club. The academy’s senior executive said, “Our focus is on the next year; that is 2014. We have already in the process of making the required papers. We need the approval from our chairman also. Once we get his approval we will take a drive to build up a team that can compete in the I-League. But at the same time we must have to be within the first four teams in the elite League qualifiers in 2014 so that we become eligible to take part in the 2015 elite League.”
Going by the AFC licensing criterion, TFA has arguably the best infrastructure for the youth development programme. They even have their own stadium.
