Guwahati, Aug. 18: Football for Development of Sports (F4D), a Siliguri-based NGO, will open a football academy next week for under-15 boys as a part of its Organic Soccer Village project at Bundapara in Boko (Kamrup district).

It today announced the launch of its first academy in the Northeast, the F4D Football School, in association with Kamrupa Football Coaching Centre and the Assam Football Association at Janata ground in Bundapara on August 26.

F4D vice-president Prasenjit Dutta said the academy would start with trial camps for under-11 and under-14 boys on August 26. The proposal was to recruit 20 talented players. "But we might have to accommodate more in view of the huge turnout expected given the interest of the people in Boko alone," he said.

"The academy will start as a day boarding centre with veteran coach Ranjit Das as mentor. But once we start three or four more academies in Assam, we propose to open a central residential academy in the state. We are running six academies at places like Rajganj (Jalpaiguri) and Siliguri in north Bengal. One of our trainees, Ganesh Chetri, was among the under-17 World Cup probables for India and we hope he will make it big," Dutta said.

He said unlike other academies, F4D aims at holistic development of footballers from the grassroots level with the active support of the people. "It is not that we only groom footballers and sell them. Though we will start the academy with financial support from private sponsors, it will have to be sustained by the people of the area in future. For that, we will empower locals in initiating organic agriculture and rural enterprises by using football as a tool. The venture is a low-budget affair and we hope the villages can bear the expenditure," Dutta said.

On the traditional football powerhouses like Mizoram, Manipur and Meghalaya, Dutta said: "We are taking one step at a time. Our primary objective is to establish the academy in Assam and then I am sure we will eye the rest of the Northeast."

AFA secretary Ankur Dutta said, "We are happy to associate ourselves with F4D. But we will only provide logistic support towards the project." Dutta said the NGO was willing to start an academy for girls and the AFA has suggested Morigaon district to be a potential area for the initiative.