The first course at the women's residential football academy set up in India by LaLiga, the LaLiga FOUNDATION and the Vicente Ferrer Foundation comes to an end.

 

A total of 20 girls under the age of 15 have received sports and social skills training, as well as financial and educational support

 

Madrid, July 14, 2022 - In the last few years, there has been an exponential growth in interest in football among girls and women in rural India. As a consequence, different projects are emerging that aim to increase opportunities for their sporting development, as well as to promote possible future employment options in the football industry, given the increase in the number of leagues that have been created in recent years.

One of these projects is the residential academy for girls who participate in the activities organised by the Vicente Ferrer Foundation, through the Rural Development Trust (RDT), and LaLiga, via its Women's Football department and its Foundation. The academy recently completed its first course, with a total of 20 girls under the age of 15 from rural communities in Anantapur receiving a one-year financial and training scholarship to live and train at the Anantapur Sports Village (ASV) facilities.

The residential academy provides them with the opportunity to improve their skills and contribute to their personal development, as well as giving the girls the opportunity to pursue their dream of playing football at a higher level, and to have the possibility of continuing their career in the sport. Thanks to this project, the girls involved have the option of training in high quality sports facilities, with good nutrition and proper educational follow-up, which is inaccessible to the majority of the population in such regions.

As a result of this initiative, they have all been enrolled in formal schools and have received classes in social skills, computer skills, health care, as well as being given sports equipment and training sessions. The academy also provides an educational development plan for the most talented participants from this area of India to help them pursue a career in football, honing their skills under the tutelage of qualified coaches who oversee and coordinate the project.

After the first course, one of the main impacts of the residential academy is that more and more girls want to become involved in football, as they see that there are increasing opportunities in the game. There has also been a perceived paradigm shift in the mindset of parents as they begin to encourage girls to play football in rural community clubs as they see that it can help their academic and then professional development. For the director of the Anantapur Sports Academy (ASA), Sai Krishna, “the most difficult challenge has been getting girls involved in sporting activities. In Anantapur, none of them played sport. Currently, 45% of the participants in all our projects are girls. A paradigm and mentality shift is taking place that is necessary to move the culture towards tolerance and equality”.

The program achieved great results at the end of its first course. Girls are more confident about pursuing a career in football, while the visibility of women in the public sphere is applauded. From an educational point of view, 90% of the girls have passed their final exams, 75% attendance in regular classes has been achieved and 90% have attended computer classes. In addition, five reading clubs have been set up within the context of the project.

Olga de la Fuente, director of the LaLiga FOUNDATION, states that “It is impressive to see how, in just one year, the academic performance and educational skills of girls in this region have improved. We are confident that through football and formal education, great strides will be made in improving the quality of life of these girls in the future”.

“At LaLiga and the LaLiga FOUNDATION we will continue to support initiatives that promote gender equality and that are committed to developing skills for the football industry”, added Pedro Malabia, director of the Women's Football Department at LaLiga.

 

About LaLiga

LaLiga is a global, innovative and socially responsible organisation which is a leader in the leisure and entertainment sector. It is a private sports association composed of the 20 public limited sports companies (SADs) and clubs of LaLiga Santander and the 22 of LaLiga SmartBank, and is responsible for organising professional football competitions in Spain. LaLiga is the football competition with the most social media followers in the world, with over 150 million followers across 17 platforms in 20 different languages. With its headquarters in Madrid (Spain), it is present in 41 countries through eleven offices and 44 delegates. The organisation carries out its social work through its Foundation and was the world's first professional football league to establish a league for intellectually challenged footballers: LaLiga Genuine Santander.

About LaLiga FOUNDATION

Founded in 1993 and a pioneer in the professional football environment, the LaLiga FOUNDATION is a private cultural entity, with its own legal status, non-profit, established by unanimous agreement of the General Assembly of LaLiga. Its main objective is focused on transforming society with the positive values of football, such as integrity, effort and self-improvement, collaboration and teamwork, transparency and good governance. At present, 36 foundations of the 42 football clubs that make up LaLiga are registered. In addition, the Foundation organises the first league in the world for footballers with learning difficulties: LaLiga Genuine Santander.

About the Vicente Ferrer Foundation

The Vicente Ferrer Foundation (FVF) is a Non-Governmental Development Organisation that has been committed to the process of transformation of rural areas in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (South East India) since 1969. It supports impoverished communities and particularly vulnerable groups: women and people with disabilities. It operates its programs in 3,662 villages and supports nearly 3 million people. The FVF's development model in India is in line with the UN's set of global proposals aimed at achieving Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.