AIFF President Patel lauds WIFA’s Just Play project 500 kids participate in WIFA Just Play festival

by Pushpak Shirwadkar May 6, 2017

Over 500 kids enthusiastically kicked the ball around during the ‘WIFA Just Play’ festival at the Cooperage ground on Friday evening. Keenly watching the children at play was Cyril Pellevat – Head of Administration, UEFA Foundation; Moya Dodd – former member FIFA Council & Executive Committee member Asian Football Confederation & Director Football Federation of Australia (FFA); Aaditya Thackeray – Chairman, MDFA; Ms Hemnagi Worlikar – Deputy Mayor of Mumbai; and Praful Patel – President AIFF & WIFA.

Patel was all praise of WIFA’s latest venture of adopting and launching the Oceania Football Confederation ‘Just Play’ program, a CSR Initiative. “This is a very good initiative by UEFA, FFA, UNICEF and offcourse Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and WIFA. It’s wonderful that we all are coming together for one common cause and that is to promote football among the children,” said Patel.

“Kids must be encouraged to play, more importantly play football. They should be made to play all kinds of games which would make them sporting. They have to be given the right kind of direction so that they become physically strong and their physical strength must be put to good use,” added Patel.

WIFA, which had recently won the award for the ‘Best Grassroot Programme’ in India by FICCI, is actively involved with ‘Just Play’ program, which is supported by the Football Federation of Australia (FFA), All India Football Federation (AIFF) & the Australian Government, is to bring awareness of ‘Sanitation and Hygiene’ and ‘Gender Equality’ through the game of football.

WIFA has tied up with the MCGM (Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai), MCFC (Mumbai City FC) and MDFA (Mumbai District Football Association), who are its partners for the program.

Speaking on the occasion Moya Dodd said, “FFA is pleased to be a part of the Just Play program’s expansion into Asia, and it is exciting to welcome the All India Football Federation and Western India Football Federation into the Just Play family. With a shared commitment to grassroots development, we are excited to see the difference this will make for football in India.”

UEFA Foundation has shown keen interest in the WIFA Just Play Programme and will also announce their partnership during the festival.

Within the short period of less than 2 months the WIFA ‘Just Play’ project has been able to reach out to about 1000 children between the ages of 6-12 years through the sports for development CSR Initiative. The project has also been able to train 17 WIFA Just Play instructors and 25 Just Play P.E. Teachers from various schools under this programme.