Dutch club Den Haag signs MoU with Haryana

Dutch Eredivisie club ADO Den Haag has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Haryana Football Association and FICCI to improve and popularize the game of football in the state of Haryana.

The clubs coach, Technical Advisor and administrator along with their Under-16 team will be arriving on February 27 for the singular purpose of:

1) To open/start football academies at grass-root level in Haryana.

2) To hold workshops/clinics for coaches, referees, administrators in Haryana in order to update them on the most modern methods of football coaching, etc.

3) To play Under-16 football matches for Boys in different parts of both Rural and Urban Haryana.

ADO Den Haag Under-16 team are scheduled to play four matches in Haryana. They will play matches in Faridabad on March 1; Badli, a village in Jhajjar District on March 3; Rohtak on March 5 and Gurgaon on March 8. Along with the matches, there is a provision of holding workshops and clinics for local referees, coaches and administrators to update them on most recent methods in the game of the football.

Football has a taken a giant step in Haryana under the able guidance of the Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Haryana FA Deepender Singh Hooda with contributions also from Haryana Olympic Association president P.V. Rathee.

Haryana has emerged as a new hub of Indian football and has been the centre of conducting football tournaments both internationally and nationally. Haryana has the privilege to host more the 23 National Championships as well as International events at Gurgaon's Tau Devi Lal Stadium. The women's national football teams also use this facility every now and then.

The recent development in Haryana and especially in Gurgaon has given them the opportunity to soon conduct the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup qualifying matches between Afghanistan and Bhutan in the month of March.

Other centres in football excellence in Haryana are: Rohtak, Jhajjar, Rewari, Mahindergarh, Faridabad, Hissar.

HOA president P.V. Rathee said, "It's very important to develop a culture of sports in Haryana. We have good Boxers and Weightlifters but we are lacking in football. Through SPAT (Sports and Physical Aptitude Test) we will be able to determine a player and his potential in a particular sport. Further we will give them the necessary infrastructure and facilities as well as exposure."

"We also want to secure the future of players and for that, we will be providing them Scholarship and encourage a system of education that could produce both educationist and sportsmen," added P.V. Rathee.

Haryana FA secretary Sunil Bhardwaj said, "For past five years, we have had excellence at the Senior National Levels in both Men and Women disciplines. It was the right time for us to do something fruitful at the youth level. This was one of the visions of our President, Mr. Deepender Singh Hooda."

"With this MoU signed between HFA, FICCI and ADO Den Haag football club, we are expecting our youth structure to get more developed as well structured. ADO Den Haag is one of the leading football clubs in Netherlands and their merger with us will definitely improve the game at the grass-root level. FICCI will play a significant role in providing financial assistance," added Sunil Bhardwaj.