Dempo SC CEO Pradyum Reddy & Coaching and Player Development consultant Richard Hood share important views on Stay Your Age Cup

The newly launched tournament aims to combat a rampant issue in the Indian footballing landscape.

Age fraud is a significant issue in Indian football, affecting the sport’s growth reflecting upon the age group results and eventually in the Indian football team. Khel Now has played a key role in highlighting these cases and the need for reform. 

Recently, the Reliance Foundation launched the “Stay Your Age Cup,” a tournament promoting fair competition in youth football. This event celebrates honest participation and focuses on fostering genuine youth development, to ensure a cleaner, more transparent future for age-group football in the country.

What is the Stay Your Age Cup?

The Stay Your Age Cup is a U-15 youth tournament focused solely on player development, with winning being secondary. Unlike many competitions in India where results overshadow growth, this event ensures young players develop by competing against top talent within their correct age group. 

Designed to foster a high-quality, challenging environment, the tournament introduces rules to make the games more intense and demanding. The aim is to nurture talent, allowing children to thrive while enjoying their football experience.

In June earlier this year, six prominent clubs and state associations united to address the pressing issue of age fraud in Indian football. The entities leading this initiative are Dempo Sports Club, FC Madras, Reliance Foundation, Mizoram FA, and Indian Super League (ISL) sides Bengaluru FC and FC Goa. 

As part of this drive, Reliance Foundation hosted the inaugural edition of the “Stay Your Age Cup” in Mumbai from September 12th to 18th. This tournament aimed to emphasize the importance of age verification and set new standards for youth football competitions.

Khel Now had the opportunity to interview key figures involved in the fight against age fraud. Among them was Pradyum Reddy, the Chief Executive Officer of Dempo Sports Club, and Richard Hood, Consultant – High Performance Coaching and Player Development. 

These leaders shared insights into their strategies and commitment to creating a more transparent and ethical environment for aspiring footballers in India.

Excerpts of the conversation as below:

Richard Hood’s views on the Fight Age Fraud Initiative

Richard Hood the consultant for High Performance and Coaching started the conversation by stating his views on the initiative and said, “To start with this age fraud initiative and the reason why these clubs and academies have come together primarily is that we have been discussing this in separate circles on messages or just by way of knowing each other and year on year we have seen that despite all of the measures and protocols that are in place to address this issue, it’s not come about in a manner that people are taking notice.

“I think every year we get XYZ number of players that are banned or highlighted for age for doing the sub-junior Nationals or Subroto Cup. But we must have big clubs and academies across all levels of the game come together.”

During the interaction, the former FC Bengaluru United head coach stated, that the initiative of the fight against age fraud is not exclusive and limited to these teams. Adding his views he added, “You will see that the profile is quite diverse of who represents this movement right now. And it’s not an exclusive club by any means. It’s open to everyone. Initially, you need a collective representative group to start this off.“

Pradyum Reddy on the need of such programs for youth development

As mentioned earlier, age fraud has been a very big hindrance in Indian Football that has been hampering the growth of the sport in the country for many years. When questioned about what took so long for these clubs to take such initiatives, the CEO of Dempo SC answered, “I think what was happening was everyone was in isolation, having their little challenges. And look, I think as much as we’ve come together now for this tournament, let’s be honest, it’s not inexpensive for us. I mean, we’re grateful that Young Champs are hosting us this year at a cost,” Pradyum Reddy said.

“So for a team from Mizoram to come, so to do this, like next year, for example, even if we were to host this in Dempo, and jointly if we host this with FC Goa, there is a significant cost for these teams to come and play in this. So the idea is this should become hyper-local where, you know, somebody in Shillong does this and it’s for Shillong teams, somebody does this in Chennai for teams in Tamil Nadu or doesn’t have to be Chennai,” Pradyum went on to explain his point of view.

“If that kind of model can be recreated everywhere and you’ve got to show that it’s possible. If you can show that this is successful, then I think it’ll help them. Because there are little mini leagues that are being formed or mini tournaments that are happening in a lot of cities nowadays, “ Reddy said.

Pradyum Reddy on age fraud being embarrassing for the country in front of FIFA

Pradyum Reddy explained the need for such youth development programs but also warned about maintaining fairness in age verification in these tournaments. He went on and quipped when FIFA decided to start a youth academy and shortlist the players 75 percent of the players were of the wrong age.

He remarked, “A similar problem (organizing these tournaments)we keep hearing from a lot of them is the age-old problem of age fraud, where teams are just coming to try and win it. And it’s at the cost of development. We shouldn’t be sacrificing on new development.”

Furthermore, he highlighted and said, “The problems we see with our age group teams later on, or we shouldn’t have an embarrassing situation where FIFA come here and say, we’re gonna set up an academy and then shortlist players and then 75% of them are the wrong age. We have had this situation before and we have had this situation recently again. Frankly, it is embarrassing.”

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