India: This football club is changing the image of Srinagar's downtown. Here's how
Football club
The downtown area of Srinagar is changing, earlier known for stone pelting and law and order incidents, it is now becoming an example of peace. The Downtown Heroes Football Club which was formed a few years ago has not only remained but become a mission, and is helping the youngsters to stay away from drugs and give a new shape to their future.
The old city of Srinagar was known for producing top-class footballerswho even went on to represent Jammu andKashmir and India at the national and international level. The downtown area of Srinagar was known as the hub of football in Kashmir, but with the beginning of insurgency, the downtown lost touch with the most popular sport in Kashmir.
Downtown Heroes FC was started with an aim to revive the lost glory of football in the old city. It was launched in 2020 and the club has already made a name for itself. The club is not only changing the image of the downtown, but it also has helped in curbing the drug menace in the Srinagar city. Not only are they including addicts in the club to play but also running campaigns for a drug-free Kashmir.
''See we started this club in 2020. We started this for a reason that was that downtown earlier was known for good things but over the period of time it lost its glory. It was now known for bad things, the aim to start this club was to show the world that we are not bad people and if given a chance we can excel anywhere. One of the biggest challenges Kashmir is facing now is drug addiction because we lack basic avenues of entertainment, so we want to give this alternative to people tocome andplay football and shun violence and drugs. We are successful till now. We have people who have left drugs and are playing with us. The target is to get youth away from this all,'' said Hanan Bashir, co founder, Downtown Heroes FC.
In its inaugural season, Downtown Heroes FC went to play in the Premier League, Real Kashmir Cup and also went on to win the Doon Knockout football tournament title. This year Downtown Heroes FC played the Durand Cup which is the oldest football competition in India and Asia.
''In 2020, we created this Downtown Club. It took us three years to become successful in our goal. This year we went for the Durand Cup, which is the oldest tournament in Asia. The top teams of India played there and this year Downtown Club was also one of those teams, which is a big success for us. Many of our boys are playing in foreign clubs and are constantly getting offers,'' said Mushtaq Bashir, co-founder, Downtown Heroes FC.
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The club includes youth in the age group of 15 years to 25 years. The club began playing at the Islamia College ground in Downtown and quickly rose to prominence on the domestic football map of the country. The Downtown Heroes have been promoted to the 2022–23 I-League Division 2. Downtown Heroes Football Club is showing a new direction to the youth of Valley.
The more private clubs come to our Kashmir, the better it is. The future is being made. In recent times, drug addiction has been on the rise and if the youth go into the sports, they will save themselves from these bad habits. The change is coming slowly, the downtown club has a lot of local youngsters playing in it and we have got a great platform like the Durand Cup to play in,'' said Salah Shafi, a player.
Downtown Football Club has also now joined the J&K Sports Council's campaign to bring more youth into the sports field. Next week the club will be selecting football players at sub-junior, junior levels. This is part of the club's expansion plan to involve more youth in sports and keep them away from drugs and violence.
''This has provided us with great help. There is a huge drug addiction here and when they saw us footballers on TVto play football for the club, they got inspired. The people from our area are extremely proud and inspired when they see us playing on TV. Football has played a big role in downtown to save youngsters from addiction.
The bigger the platform you get, the better your profile becomes,'' said Momin Khalid, another player.
More than 200 youngsters are right now associated with the Downtown Heroes FC.
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