About the Organization People behind

Sports & Education Promotion Trust (SEPT) was established to promote sports development in India with focus on football. Started in 2004 and based in Calicut, the trust has set up football training centres called “football nurseries” spread across seven districts in Kerala. Majority of these centres are located in rural areas, one is in a tribal region. Given the huge potential in the tribal areas of Kerala which largely goes untapped due to financial constraints and lack of adequate sports infrastructure for the people of such area to pursue the game, the thrust of the initiative is on spotting and nurturing talent in rural parts of the country. Currently, SEPT has soccer nurseries in twenty two centres. These include rural region, urban region, a tribal region and coastal region.

Vision

To become a premier breeding ground for football in India by imparting training of international standards and providing necessary amenities to talented children from impoverished, rural and tribal areas of the country and thereby provide opportunities for these children in the mainstream sporting arena .

Mission

To identify football talent among children from impoverished rural and tribal backgrounds through an intensive residential Programme, and to nurture the talents to reach international standards, and in the process create awareness about football in the mainstream sporting arena of India.


The

Process

Talented children below the age of nine are identified after conducting selection trials at different centres under the guidance of a team of experts. About 540 children, the best out of more than 5000 who turn up for selections are divided among the twenty two centres. These children are provided with intensive training by local professional coaches at different centres. Currently each center has more than 20 boys who are trained three times a week with duration of 2 hours in each session. Special training sessions are also conducted during vacations and holidays like Christmas, Onam etc. Once in three months, selected trainees gather at one place for an intensive training session under a professional coach. In the past, many of these sessions have been conducted by foreign youth coaches from Belgium, Holland,Malaysia and Germany.

Resident trainers at the academy also undergo refresher courses periodically to keep them updated with the best scientific training methods and techniques used in football academies around the world.

SEPT also organizes regular tournaments in the districts concerned as well as inter-center tournaments so that the boys get used to competitive football.  Selected boys participated in friendly matches at Kochi & in a U-10 tournament at Goa .To help the trainees gain international exposure, team participated in 3 tournaments in Sweden (Dalecarlia Cup, Storsjocupen) and Finland (Kokkola Cup) during July 2007. SEPT, Calicut was the winner of the Dalercarlia Cup Sweden(U-11) & Finished 5th in the prestigious Kokkola Cup, Finland