Mission XI Million launched to promote football among school children

The Union Government on 10 February 2017 launched the Mission XI Million initiative to promote football among school children.

The programme was launched by the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs and Sports Vijay Goel in the presence of the President of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) Praful Patel in New Delhi.

Features of Mission XI Million

• It aims to instill the passion for football in 11 million children from every part of the country.

• It is considered as the biggest school sports outreach programme in the country.

• The mission is driven by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi´s vision of making football the sport of choice in India.

• A first of its kind, the programme will encourage children to play the beautiful game of football, gain healthy habits and learn important life lessons in teamwork and sportsman spirit.

• The mission was designed by blending international sporting expertise and ground realities of our huge and varied country.

• The approach of the mission involves working with school principals and sports’ teachers and encourage and incentivize them to make children play football games on a regular basis.

• The focus of the mission will be on games that can be adapted to different field sizes and conditions, with special emphasis on small sided games.

• The key idea of the Mission XI Million is that every child should have the opportunity to play the world’s most popular sport.

• The Mission XI Million seeks to equip parents and schools with the equipment and the knowledge about strategies for making regular play of football a reality for their wards.

• The mission will be implemented in over 37 cities and 12,000 schools across all 29 states of India till September 2017.

• It is divided into three phases - seminars for teacher and educators, in-school activities and football festivals.