Indian Football: Subroto Cup inks deal with Ajna Holding to digitise Tournament

Subroto Cup, a prodigy of the Indian Air Force, has inked a long-term partnership with Ajna Holding AB where the latter will provide Asia's largest grassroots Tournament with end-to-end competition management through its dedicated web portal & application, which will be utilised to track player development, fixture management, match insights and registrations.

The Subroto Mukherjee Sports Education Society (SMSES), in collaboration with Ajna Holding, are now all set to start the implementation of its strategic plan with the digitalization of the tournament by starting seminars and workshops starting from 16th May 2019.

The tournament, which is named after Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee, is a first of its kind initiative in India and will also hold the distinction of the largest youth tournament to go completely digital globally. More than 750,000 players and 34,000 teams compete in the national tournament yearly.

Subroto Cup will also introduce two crucial digital platforms namely, Super Coach & Super Player along with Ajna. The app aims at developing the coaches in India with a very modern tech-driven platform with a curriculum designed by experts in Sweden for kids from 5 years to the first team. Super Coach will aid those kids who lack quality coaching at par with international standards.

On the other hand, Super Player is focused on individual development based on position and personal development. Ajna Holding’s IP focuses on registering, tracking, analyzing, scouting and developing the best players under the vision of the Subroto Cup.

It'll allow the competition to reach the hinterlands of the country to identify and map players from remote locations at a young age. It'll help the Subroto Cup prepare a master database of players and teams, which will give immense benefit to the users as well as participants.

It will help to curb the age fraud issue to a great extent as well as the coaches and teams who have contributed to the development of players could be recognized and awarded.

Meanwhile, the teams & clubs, for their financial sustainability, can earn under the FIFA’s training compensation scheme if a player would turn professional in the future.

As a part of this strategic plan, Ajna, along with SMSES, will scout 25 players who will earn scholarships to be trained by best coaches & legends in Europe every year.

Prashant Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO, Ajna Holdings said, “Artificial Intelligence is the future. For India, to take a giant leap we need to implement sports science and AI with all other development pillars needed to support Subroto Cup.

"The dream is to see Indian players leading the global charts and India being a consistent participant in the World Cup. Grassroots development is the way forward, which our great Indian Air Force officials had envisioned 60 years ago from now. It time to accomplish the mission now.”

Group Captain Deepak Ahluwalia, General Secretary, Subroto Mukherjee Sports Education Society, the governing body of the competition also said, “We are extremely excited to start the first phase of implementation of the digital platform. Ajna brings much-needed technical expertise to the Competition will provide an immersive learning experience and developmental for future footballers.

"We encourage everyone to join forces with us in achieving the dream of Indian football together and our organization has left no stone unturned in fulfilling our commitment to developing this dream further.”

Under the revamped process, Subroto Cup has opened the registration process online. Schools, which can field teams in the U-14 boys, U-17 girls and boys category, will now be able to upload player and team information, track player development in line with leading international competitions. Each state body can also view their player’s development contributing to the national development.

Football stalwarts akin to Pele, Davor Suker, Ronaldinho, Sol Campbell, Rivaldo, Clarence Seedorf and many more have already pledged their support for this competition.

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Phase 1 of the implementation plan will cover 4 states & 1 UT: Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya and New Delhi. The details of each workshop and seminar are as follows:

New Delhi (Air-Force Station) on 16th May from 11:00-15:30 Hrs: Only for IAF Coaches. Not open for public

Trivandrum (St Joseph’s School) on 18th May from 14:30-18:30 Hrs.

Calicut (Calicut University) on 20th May from 10:30-15:30 Hrs

Shillong (Laban Indoor Stadium) on 22nd May from 10:30-15:30 Hrs

Guwahati (SAI Regional Centre Football Station) on 24th May from 10:30-15:30 Hrs

Kolkata (Salt Lake Stadium) on 26th May from 10:30-15:30 Hrs

Register at https://forms.gle/9eRKDLy7vMdfabKS7. The system will be hosted on the official website of Subroto Cup: www.subrotocup.org