Baichung Bhutia's football school now in Mumbai
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After Delhi, Mumbai is the next destination for the 'Bhaichung Bhutia Football Schools' (BBFS), a project initiated by the former India skipper as part of his bid to promote the game at the grassroot level.
The first batch of training would begin from December 5 at four centres across Mumbai -- Priyadarshini Park, Bandra, Juhu and Kandivali.
BBFS will hold a school tournament in the city from December 2-4 after which 20 talented students would be given scholarships, it was announced at a press conference here.
"It is important that kids get training. After certain age kids don't know what to do. For me being a professional, it would be easy to guide them," Bhutia told reporters here.
"If talented kids want to play professionally it would be easier for them to go through us. For others to convince clubs would be a lot more difficult than for me. Besides, I have my own football academy coming up under my club Sikkim United. So for me its a win-win situation. If there's a good player I can give him a contract at my club," he said.
BBFS, started in association with Portuguese academy Football by Carlos Queiroz, is aiming to have about 200 kids for their first batch in Mumbai.
The fees would be about Rs 2,000-3,000 per month per kid, and about 30 per cent students would get scholarships and undergo training free of cost, he added.
The target is to have 5,000-10,000 kids for training in the next five years, he said, adding BBFS was looking at Bangalore and Pune for expansion.
Bhutia said to become economically viable, BBFS was looking at help from the corporate sector.
"Financially its a big challenge, but if we get help from the corporate sector it would make our life much more easier."
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