The ongoing preliminaries of the women’s I-League has generated a lot of interest and excitement among women’s football clubs across the country. One club that has all the more reason to be enthused about the tournament is the Mumbai-based Bodyline Sports Club that is playing in the 10-team I-League preliminaries.
One of the few women’s football clubs in the city, and in the country for that matter, Bodyline was started at the turn of the new millennium in 2000, by Marcellus John Aleckal, the football coach at St Anne’s High School in Fort, Mumbai. The team is currently coached by 30-year-old Kimberly Miranda, former Maharashtra player. Although Miranda’s position is that of a defender, she is currently the substitute goal-keeper for the team since their regular goalie, Durva Vahia, is in the United Kingdom for higher studies.
Starting from scratch
Speaking to Scroll about the initiation of the club, 23-year-old Juhi Shah, the captain of the squad, said, “Sir Marshall was the one who started the club with school girls and a few seniors, who’d passed out. Slowly, we started getting our own players.” Shah has been playing the sport since she was nine or ten and joined the club when she was in her early teens, around 14 or 15.
In order to gain exposure, Shah said that the club used to play in local events, one of which was the Bandra Women’s League. The league is a local suburban event that is played from June to October on Sunday and bank holidays, provided that the ground is available to be used. Bodyline is a four-time former champion in this league, having won it consecutively from 2010 to 2012, and then again in 2015. The club's participation in the I-League preliminaries is the culmination of a long arduous road.
“We played a state qualifier in Maharashtra, last month, against two other teams from Maharashtra. We won both matches and were through to the qualifiers (preliminaries),” shared Juhi.
The women's I-League initiative
The All India Football Federation has had a specific tournament structure to bifurcate the team’s entry into the I-League. Ten states were allowed to be a part of the I-League and these states were selected on the merit and scope of the women’s football teams composed within them. Each of these 10 states had to have a qualifier. Ten such teams have qualified for the preliminaries and have been divided into two groups of five teams each. One team from each group will be playing the I-League, which has eight direct entries of women’s teams from the Indian Super League and the men’s I-League stable.
Shah believes that it is an equal opportunity for each of the 10 teams playing the preliminaries. “From the playing point of view, playing fewer matches across alternate days is less taxing on the players, who need enough time to recover after having playing for 90 minutes on the field,” she opined, before mentioning about the sponsorship advantage that awaits the qualifiers. “It will also help that the two teams will be sponsored by the AIFF, once they qualify.”
Overcoming the fund crunch
Since Shah's club is privately funded, arranging funding in time for the tournament was a huge problem for Bodyline. It also did not help that the official intimation about its participation in the preliminary was severely delayed.
“One struggle we had was we were intimated about the tournament barely two weeks before its start. From the management point of view, it was a short time for us to prepare,” revealed the Bodyline captain. Further delving into details, she added, “We needed sponsors. We had a meeting with all the parents and told them about our problem. We took help from the girls too and asked them to spread the word around. The entire team was working side-by-side to get sponsors in time.”
The squad left for Cuttack last Friday evening by train. When asked then if an element of tiredness would creep in, Shah admitted, “It’s going to be tiring. We had planned to book flight tickets, but were forced to wait because of shortage of funds. In the delay, flight tickets became expensive. So we then decided to save money by booking train tickets and focus on other areas.”
Insurance is an important element in these "other areas". According to Shah, insurance is an aspect that clubs can never compromise on. “From a club’s perspective, the players are its responsibility because they are under contract as a player with the club. Say during a match, God forbid, if they get injured and have to get operated, the club would not want the players to pay for their expenses themselves because they are ultimately playing for the club,” she added.
Full-time versus part-time
This is not the first time that the 23-year-old has donned multiple roles for the club. Along with being the skipper, she is also its public relations liaison and a working professional, currently working out of Mumbai as a venue competition coordinator for the ongoing ISL season. Additionally, she is also a match referee and has officiated in national level girls’ matches.
She is, however, not the only part-time player in the squad. In fact, the entire squad strength is composed of part-timers, who juggle educational and professional commitments alongside their passion for football. But in response to a query about seeing full-time Indian female football players, the Bodyline FC captain had a different take.
“I don’t see a full-time dedication needed. The only reason being, that not many women’s tournaments are held in the country. Until and unless there’s an ISL or an I-League, you can [see] the players and the team in the management side take up a full-time role,” she countered.
This, then brings the topic on the podium of administrative difficulties hampering the growth of women’s football. “The Indian women’s team, whichever category it may be, needs more exposure tournaments and needs to play more international friendly matches,” stated Shah.
However, all is not lost according to Juhi as she feels the launch of the I-League is a deserving fruit of the long period of waiting Indian women’s football has had to do.
Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version of this article's headline erroneously stated that Juhi Shah is Bodyline FC's substitute goalkeeper as well, which she is not.
