Tottenham Hotspur will sponsor Team India at the Homeless World Cup Football 2009 in Milan, Italy from September 6 to 13.
As part of the arrangement between the English Premier League club and Nagpur-based Krida Vikas Sanstha Nagpur (KVSN), a group of six boys and two girls taking part in the 48-nation tournament will be funded by Spurs, besides supplying kitting, coaching assistance and signed memorabilia, which can be auctioned.
Team India will be taking part in the Homeless World Cup (HWC) football after two weeks training under coaches Ashok Chhetri (Bengal), Andy Hookes (Scotland), Debora Hall (England). The event is played as per streets football rules, four-a-side and matches having two halves of seven minutes each. Teams can be male, female or mixed.
Afghanistan won the Homeless World Cup 2008 in Melbourne.
Alexander Ross, a sports management and consultancy firm, arranged the partnership between KVSN and the EPL club and represents Spurs in India. KVSN runs a slum soccer programme and organises leagues in 15 cities for homeless and slum dwellers, many addicted to drugs, alcohol or involved in petty crimes.
An opportunity
Tottenham Hotspur Executive Director, Paul Barber, said: “We view the association between Tottenham Hotspur and KVSN as an opportunity to benefit some of the poorest people in India through slum soccer and related programmes.”
KVSN founder, Prof Vijay Barse said: “Tottenham Hotspurs global profile will help us reach out to the world, show what we are doing and gather more support, which in turn, will help us help more people. The association will give us access to Tottenham’s sporting and commercial expertise and inspiration to all those in India finding hope for the future through football.”
The team: Savio Andrew, Vikas Sharma, Chandrasekhar Luche (Nagpur), Vinod Subba (Darjeeling), Nirney Shirway (Chandrapur), Dhiraj Kumar (Uttaranchal), Disha Lohabre (Bhandara), Chitra Turkar (Bondia). Manager: Swapnil Kalbande (Mumbai).
