A Model Football Academy for Residents of Lyari Town, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
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A MODEL FOOTBALL ACADEMY FOR RESIDENTS OF LYARI TOWN, KARACHI, SINDH, PAKISTAN Dr. Syed Arif Kamal, Shahid Ali Khan, Dr. Soniha Aslam ABSTRACT This paper reviews and analyzes factors contributing to the rise and the fall of football game in Lyari Town. This town has the passion and the talent for football, which should be groomed to produce international players. A model football academy on the pattern of Grêmio (Brazil), Altınordu (Turkey), La Masia (Spain) and INF Clairefontaine (France) is proposed with football- oriented curriculum and international-level-football-training facilities on a green campus. The players are to be inducted at the age of 5 years after rigorous psychological and physical examinations as well as fitness testing. They study and play football here till they pass their Higher Secondary Certificate Examination. Measures are suggested for safety and security at campus as well as use and abuse of controlled substances. A survey was conducted to obtain opinions of footballers, coaches and general public in order to determine causes of decline of football in Lyari. The questionnaire was divided into 3 parts — lack of physical resources, noises influencing football game and shortage of human resources. The responses were indicative of the community‟s strong feeling that Lyarites can become international- standard footballers, if they are given the infrastructure and the facilities combined with motivation to achieve distinction. The proposed football academy should be the first step to change mindset of Lyarities from indulging in drugs and crime to healthy sport activities. Keywords: physical examination, psychological examination, sport-centered curriculum, talent hunting, vitamin-D deficiency Abbreviations FIFA: Fédération Internationale de Football Association • PFF: Pakistan Football Federation • SPSS: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences • WADA: The World Anti-Doping Agency. INTRODUCTION Globalization has influen- generate excitement in terms of ced sport, in particular, football. winning and losing with all the The world cup is equally enjoy- emotions and the technicalities ed by players as well as spec- associated. Football is believed tators. Similarly, various nation- to be one of the basic games in nal and international tournam- the world of sport. The residents ents as well as club following of Lyari infuse a new wave of The Sky (ISSN-2523-9368) Vol. 04, 2020 passion towards this game that zema, 2015). An old and a highly drive people mad, which needs populated town, Lyari is a place to be channelized to train the where more than 600 000 people youth to pursue a football reside. Their love for football can career. be noticed by more than 100 football clubs, 11 grounds and 2 This paper looks at the stadiums located in the town. hidden potential of residents of Lyari investigating the factors Lyari was first populated by contributing to the growth and the Sindhi people, who pursued the decline of football in Lyari fisheries as well as people from and proposes a model football Makran, Lasbela and Kalat distri- academy to discover and to cts, which are cities and areas of groom talent in this sport. Baluchistan, the province largest in area in Pakistan. These early THE LYARI TOWN residents came from Afro-Indian Lyari is one of the earliest Pakistanis, also recognized as towns of Karachi, the cosmopo- Sheedis. Historically, Sheedis are litan city and the main seaport of the decedents of captured slaves, Province of Sindh, Pakistan. Its mariners, servants and dealers name originated from the river from East Africa, who came to Lyari that streamed past this this region during 12th to 19th ce- region into the Arabian Sea. ntury. Their first stay was in lo- Riverbed of Lyari River extends wer Sindh as well as the Makran from Liaquatabad Town to Kar- coast, which gave them the name achi Port. There exist two large Makranis. conduits for stockpiling of wa- ter, which later combines into a TALENT HUNTING OF FOOT- single river. Between these two BALL PLAYERS courses, there are twenty to Lyarites are very passionate twenty-five fisher-society huts on playing football. Even, during located. During ancient times the holy month of Ramadhan, the mentioned spot was recogni- football tournaments are, not zed as Dirbo. Afterward, it was only, organized, but also, they renamed Kalachi-Jo-Goth, signfy- are at their peak. Clubs in the ing the town of Kalachi (Kho- locality encourage budding foot- 6 A Model Football Academy for residents of Lyari Town ballers to take part in the tourna- Carlos Tevez (Argentina), Arda ments and demonstrate their ta- Turan (Turkey) and Yusuf Yazıcı lent. It is the dream of every boy (Turkey). in Lyari to become a great foot- baller like Portegeuse Cristiano The interest of Lyarities is Ronaldo dos Santos, Argentinean noticeable during the season of Lionel Andrés Messi and Briazil- Football World Cup. Every lian Neymar da Silva Santos youngster, adult and older per- Júnior (Khan, 2019). They idea- son is noticed wearing the jersey lize Eric Abidal (France), Vincent of his favorite team. LEDs are Aboubakar (Cameroon), Emman- displayed in public places, uel Adebayor (Togo), Sergio Ag- where cheering and exciting üero (Argentina), Nicolas Anelka mobs scream around whenever (France), Demba Ba (France), Ga- a goal is secured. reth Bale (Wales), Karim Benz- ema (France), Faiq Bolkia (Bru- Lack of public attention nei), Merih Demiral (Turkey), towards sport, in particular, foo- Marouane Fellaini - Bakkioui tball has demotivated the pla- (Morroco-Begium), Mohummed yers, which made them getting Salah Hamed Mahrous Ghaly involved in evil deeds (Huma- (Egypt), Mario Götze (Germany), yun, 2017). Those, who do play Eden Hazard (Belgium), N'Golo football under these discoura- Kante (Mali-France), Sergio Rica- ging circumstances, do not poss- rdo May (Brazil), Ozan Mohum- ess training in current techni- med Kabak (Turkey), Ahmed ques, estimating the strengths Kutucu (Turkey), Kylian Mbappé and the weaknesses of other pla- (France), Wakaso Mubarak yers as well as disciplined train- (Ghana), Sergio Ricardo Neves ing tailored for specific skills (Brazil), Abdülkadir Ömür (Mahfooz, 2019). The inhabitants (Turkey), Mesut Ozil (Germany), enjoy street football and night Paul Pogba (Guinea-France), football. During the visit of for- Franck Ribery (France), Bacary eign ship crew to Karachi port, Sagna (France), Xherdan Shaqiri they would invite local laborers (Switzerland), Moussa Sissoko to play football. This is how the (France), Çağlar Söyüncü (Tur- game was introduced here. In key), Cengiz Ünder (Turkey), return, those laborers were paid 7 The Sky (ISSN-2523-9368) Vol. 04, 2020 keeping their motivation alive. football house, based in Lyari, Lyari is called Mini-Brazil. The was the PFF headquarters. Lyari children have overcome the life of being homeless, expo- Talent identification in foot- sed to violence, drugs and petty ball is based on the prediction of crimes before taking part in the elite football performance. Berg- Street Child World Cup in Rio kamp et al. (2019) critically eval- de Generiro, Brazil in April 2014 uated the methodology of stu- (Raheel, 2014a). Every household dies aimed to empirically relate here has a family football story performance characteristics to (Raheel, 2014b). This is a reality subsequent success in football. It that Lyari is excelling in football is suggested to employ these than any other part of the cou- scientific methodologies for tale- ntry. During the FIFA (Fédéra- nt hunting in the Lyari youth. tion Internationale de Football Association) tournament mat- SOME PROMINENT FOOTBALL ches, political tensions and gang ACADEMIES activities subside. Various local football competitions and leag- Before discussing the ues are organized each year to proposed football academy, let us satisfy the thirst of game enth- look at a few football academies of usiasts. These competitions give the world: Grêmio Academy, Porto the platform of training to the Alegre, Brazil; Altınordu Sports young footballers. Football grou- Club, İzmir, Turkey; La Masia, the nds of Lyari have contributed to Youth Football Club of international achievements of Barcelona, Spain and Centre football team of Pakistan (Khoz- Technique National Fernand Sastre, ema, 2015). Foundations of referred to as INF Clairefontaine Lyari‟s House of Football were (Institut National du Football de laid in 1976 much before the Clairefontaine), Clairefontaine- establishment of the PFF (Pakis- en-Yvelines, France. Law & tan Football Federation) House Sanderson (2019) describe the in 2003, the national football operation of Grêmio Academy. In headquarters based in Lahore the words of Francesco Barletta, (Hasan, 2020a). Before that the director of Grêmio, “We don‟t play to win, we play to develop. 8 A Model Football Academy for residents of Lyari Town When the players get to this Altınordu Sports Club was level, it is a source of joy for us.” established on December 26, The objectives of the training are: 1923. Club colors are red and dark blue. The name comes from Forming first-team players Altınordu State, a great Turkish Produce players, who may Empire in the past. Altınordu adapt to any working model won championship 6 times in at any club in the world and Izmir League. At the end of are prepared for any situa- 2011- 2012 season, the team was tion. in the Turkish 3rd League (Professional). After the Seyit Players in all age groups Mehmet Özkan taking over the are trained in the fundamentals team, the club changed