India Launches School Grassroots Football Programme in 25 Schools Across 10 Cities

Earlier this month, the All India Football Federation and the Ryan Group of Institutions officially launched their School Grassroots Football Programme at the Centre for Sports Excellence in Bengaluru. Starting with the 2026-27 academic year, the initiative will roll out age-appropriate football and futsal coaching to thousands of students across 25 Ryan Group schools in 10 cities, delivered entirely by AIFF-certified coaches. The programme builds on a partnership signed earlier this year, in which the Ryan Group agreed to support education for players selected into the FIFA-AIFF Talent Academies in Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar. In other words, this is not just a one-off coaching clinic — it is designed as a genuine pipeline from school football straight through to India's top talent identification programs. For young players, especially those who do not have access to expensive private academies, initiatives like this matter enormously. Quality coaching should not depend on which club you can afford to join — it should be available where kids already are, in school. A standardized curriculum also means players moving between schools or cities will not lose the technical foundation they have already built. Programmes like this are part of a bigger global trend: federations recognizing that the biggest gains in player development often come not from finding a handful of super-talented kids, but from raising the coaching standard for everyone. Source: The News Mill (https://thenewsmill.com/2026/08/aiff-and-ryan-group-launch-school-grassroots-football-programme-in-25-schools/)