Parmesh Naik, development manager, FC Pune City, reveals how kids will be taught to play the ‘Fiorentina way’.Your football journey:I’ve been a Maharashtra state player, and I played in the Santosh Trophy ten years back as well, after which I was a semi-professional player in the Mumbai league. I eventually quit and got back to studies and work, but in the back of my mind I always wanted to get back to football and sport, and I did when I worked on the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. And now I’m back in football, working with FC Pune City.Your team’s focus on grassroots football: The Wadhawan Group has been associated with sports for quite some time now. They were involved in the Sri Lanka Premier League, and even with the Mumbai Indians in the IPL. Our CEO is also involved with India On Track and the Arsenal Soccer Schools. The ISL is a stepping stone, and the Pune franchise would want to do a lot on the grassroots front going forward.The benefits of a foreign technical tie-up: We’ve tied up with Fiorentina, and a large part of that partnership is focused towards the first team, but going forward they are looking to put in a lot of effort in grassroots development, and teach kids the “Fiorentina way”.Since the technical partnership extends to the first team, they are also responsible for how the team performs on the pitch. The complete technical staff is from Italy.When it comes to how football should be run, very few companies or organizations in India really have that knowledge, so we needed to get in a partner who is well-versed with what has to be done from an administrative and technical point of view.Your grassroots vision: For me, grassroots football is all about the basic introduction of the sport to children. If you take cricket as an example, we were introduced to it when we were very young, and played it in the streets or in our homes. I would want something similar for football, in the sense that the sport has to be introduced to children at a young age, where they can just play the game and have fun.That’s where grassroots football starts. Then we have to make the child develop a true interest in the game. After that, things take shape automatically.Your city’s unique advantages & disadvantages: Pune has been on the football map for quite some time, with Pune FC in the I-League. We’ve always had a good footballing culture, and there’s always been a lot of good support for the game. There are a lot of convent schools as well, and football is a big thing there. Being from Pune, I can say that football has always been around, but it’s the quality of football that has been lacking. It’s something that we expect the ISL to deliver.Pune has one big disadvantage though, which are the lack of quality grounds. We somehow lack the right infrastructure when it comes to stadiums and grounds, and the team really struggled to find a decent training facility. We finally did, but this is a big challenge for the city in general.Your team’s immediate grassroots plans: We will be conducting around 50-60 one-day football clinics in schools around Pune. We will also be doing a lot of community development by the way of getting parents together and explaining to them what grassroots football is all about, and how we’re looking at growing football in the city. After all, it’s not just about getting children involved, but about getting parents involved as well.
