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Team SSFL in Gujarat to assess footballing opportunities at grassroots

After a great success of STAIRS School Football League in Delhi, Team STAIRS is planning to
launch the same in Gujarat. The idea is to engage over 10,000 budding footballers at the grassroots
and create an opportunity for the promising ones to showcase their talent to the mentors.
Team STAIRS has initiated the process of conducting the baseline survey across Gujarat to
understand the overall sporting culture across various regions of the state as well as the popularity
of football amongst teenagers. The team will closely monitor the activities of school-going teens as
well as school dropouts and unschooled to create hypothesis on how football intervention can bring
about the behavioural change amongst the youth of the state.
The team will also evaluate the impact and the scale of the ongoing sports activities as also the
existing sports infrastructure and facilities available in the state. Findings from its surveys and
secondary research will be shared with the concerned authorities in the government as well as the
sports fraternity with ideas and suggestions for developments of sports vis--vis overall growth of the
youth in the state.
There is a lot of good work happening across the country for development of sports at the
grassroots. The governments, former players as well as several non-profits are making a true
impact. However, as much as you do, there will always be a need to do a bit more, improve further
and make a little better impact. That is what SSFL does. The idea of the league is to add value to the
existing works of the government, the sports fraternity and other stakeholders. SSFL is a platform
that optimally utilizes the available resources, engages footballers for nearly nine months, and
delivers some of the most promising footballers from the grassroots, said Mr Siddhartha Upadhyay,
founder and secretary general, STAIRS.
In its second year in Delhi, SSFL has more than doubled in scale and is being appreciated by all
stakeholders. As it has become the first step towards professional football, it is being endorsed by
some of the senior government officials and celebrity sportsmen. We are hoping to be able to
replicate the model in Gujarat and provide opportunity to those hidden talents somewhere in the
remote towns of the state, added Upadhyay.
The STAIRS team in Gujarat will also be meeting the leading corporate groups to discuss support
possibilities under their corporate social responsibility (CSR). The new Companies Act 2013, that
mandates large companies to spend on CSR has a clause under the Schedule VII that states the
spend towards development of recognized sport qualifies as the CSR spend of the company. With
over 14,000 companies falling under the ambit of the mandatory law, there lays a great potential to
develop sports at the grassroots.
The Uflex Group is primarily supporting SSFL in Delhi while Max India Foundation has associated
with the same as healthcare partners and has taken responsibility of injury or other medical
emergencies that may occur during the league. Several other credible organizations have also
engaged with the league to offer various services.
About STAIRS
STAIRS is a New Delhi-headquartered not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation (NGO) which
aims to empower the underprivileged youth of India. It is committed to providing opportunities to the
young Indians so that they can lead a life of dignity. The NGO, which started in 2000, nurtures the
talented sportsmen at the bottom-of-the-pyramid to ensure sports become a mean of earning a
living.
STAIRS also organises educational and health programmes and educates youth about the dignity of
labour and equality irrespective of caste, creed or sex. STAIRS operates through its 300 centres
spread across six states in India.

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