Mandi: Sports teachers want football introduced for girls at school level

Mandi, December 8

A sports teachers’ organisation has demanded the introduction of football for women in the sports calendar of the state Education Department. A request letter in this regard has been submitted to the Director of Higher Education.

Gaurav, football coach in Himachal Pradesh University, said, “Female football players of Himachal Pradesh have been showing great improvement in their performance at the national and inter-university competitions for the last few years. The girls of our state have won medals in Junior Nationals as well. This year, the HPU, Shimla, introduced the game in its university sports calendar for the first time, in which 18 teams of different colleges participated from across the state.”

He said, “We urged the Director, HP Higher Education Department, Amarjeet Sharma, to introduce an inter-school football championship (girls) in the sports calendar of the Education Department. Football is the most popular sport in the world. Along with men’s football, women’s football is also becoming very popular in our country. There are many schools and colleges in our state where girls play football and their teams can be formed. However, there is no girls’ soccer game on the school calendar right now.”

“The game has been introduced very well for girls at the school level in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, etc. and their teams participate in School Games Federation of India’s competitions regularly. So, we urged the Director to introduce the inter-school football championship (girls) in the sports calendar of the Education Department in the different age categories as soon as possible,” he said.