Players dream of windfall as AIFF launches six-team women’s league

This was the first time she had spoken before such a big audience — a good 50 people, most of them journalists. For the 22-year-old Puducherry girl, it was also her first solo trip out of the union territory.

Sumithra lost her father when she was just two, and her mother did the best she could for the upbringing of her daughter.

But the income she generated doing manual labour didn’t suffice. Sumithra was eventually enrolled in a government-run orphanage.

“I cried all day long. My mother would come to meet me outside the gate, but they wouldn’t allow me to meet her,” she recalls.

Sumithra, who was part of the SAFF Cup-winning Indian team, had minimal interaction with the ‘outside world’. The children at the orphanage were not allowed to leave the premises.

“If we resisted, we were beaten up,” she says.

Football was the only saving grace for her and the other girls. Mariyappan, a local coach, took them onboard for a training programme aimed at imparting football skills to lesser privileged sections of the society.

The sport opened many doors for Sumithra but it was never a financially secure career option. The first-ever Indian Women’s League, that will feature six teams, is the All India Football Federation’s first major push that might help football become a viable career option for young women. Although the money on offer is not at par with men footballers, the likes of Sumithra believe it will help them make a decent living.

Dalima Chibber, a second-year psychology student at Jesus and Mary College, will be taking part in the league for Pune City FC. Although she was reluctant to reveal her contract details, the youngster feels she’s got a good deal.

“They are paying me well. It’s just the first year and soon we will be earning in crores,” was her optimistic estimate.

The six teams participating are FC Alakhpura (Haryana), Jeppiaar Institute of Technology FC (Puducherry), Aizawl FC (Mizoram), FC Pune City (Maharashtra), Rising Student Club (Odisha) and Eastern Sporting Union (Manipur).

Due to logistical limitations, all matches in the the two-week league will be played at the Ambedkar Stadium in the Capital. The first game will be on January 28. IWL will adopt the round-robin format with the top four teams qualifying for the semifinals.

AIFF had been working on the plan to launch a women’s league for over two years. The competition, according to the federation’s general secretary Kushal Das, will also benefit the the national team that will play their Asian Cup qualifiers in April.

“The players will have constant match practice,” Das says.

While the long-term impact of the league on Indian women’s football will be realised only in due course, Sumithra hopes to earn enough to ensure her mother does not need to lay bricks anymore for a living, now that the foundation of the women’s league has been laid.