Scott O’Donell, technical director, AIFF Academies, conducted the sessions at the Hero Indian Super League inaugural Grassroots Workshop in Kolkata in tandem with Piet Hubers, member, UEFA Grassroots Panel. O’Donell is working with the AIFF for almost three years. In this exclusive interview, the Australian official spoke about grassroots football and the differences between grassroots football and youth football which are often considered to be the same thing.

Scott, could you tell us more about this ISL Grassroots Workshop?

Well, it’s basically to share AIFF’s grassroots philosophy with the ISL clubs, and it’s really heartening to see that the 26 participants that have been here over the three days are very passionate about grassroots football; because, for Indian football to improve, we need to widen the base of players, and for that we need good grassroots programmes.

So it’s great that the ISL clubs are committing to a grassroots programme, and that helps the AIFF and India as a whole to spread the message of grassroots football. The more kids that are playing, the better chance we have of having successful teams in the future.

Have you seen a passion and commitment for grassroots football among the various ISL teams?

That’s the thing about grassroots football – you have to be passionate. The participants here have shown a lot of enthusiasm and passion, and that’s what you need. You don’t need to be a professional licensed coach, you have to love football and you have to like working with kids, and that’s exactly what we’ve seen here.

It’s all about having fun. AIFF follows the FIFA philosophy of grassroots football, which is kids of 6-12 years of age, boys and girls, and the main priority is to create a safe environment for the kids to play football and have fun while playing football. If they don’t have fun they’re not going to come back next week.

Scott O’Donell, technical director, AIFF Academies

Can you outline your vision for grassroots football?

It’s all about having fun. AIFF follows the FIFA philosophy of grassroots football, which is kids of 6-12 years of age, boys and girls, and the main priority is to create a safe environment for the kids to play football and have fun while playing football. If they don’t have fun they’re not going to come back next week.

What really is the current state of grassroots football in India?

It’s been neglected in India, and it’s only in the last two years that the AIFF has tried to introduce a few grassroots programmes in Indian football. Till now, it hasn’t really existed! There have been some NGOs, state associations and even private organizations that have been doing their own programmes, but that’s just for a small number of people. Because of the size of India, the AIFF has taken control, and implemented FIFA’s philosophy, in order to try and spread the message across India.

Many people take grassroots football to mean youth football. Can you outline the difference between what you would teach during a grassroots session as compared to training kids at an academy?

In grassroots football, we want anyone and everyone, of all shapes, sizes and ages, coming in and playing football. It’s not about coaching per se, but more about organizing. So we want the ISL clubs and the developing officers to get into the schools, to give feedback to the PE teachers etc, on how to conduct a grassroots training session. It’s about playing and having fun. So they don’t have to be coaches, but it’s more about organizing, and creating an environment where kids can play and have fun.

As opposed to when kids are over 12 and in our academies, we’re working more on developing the players to become professional foobtallers, so we’re focusing more on conditioning, tactics and technique. A good grassroots programme will help us, because we will have a base to build on.