India footballers donate team fines to self-help centre

Mumbai, October 20: The Indian senior national football team recently donated Rs 1.3 lakh in support of women empowerment to a self-defence centre in the city. The money donated will be used to refurbish the centre and allow many women to take up free self-defence training.

Sunil Chhetri & Co, during their one-week camp in the first week of October prior to their 2019 Asian Cup qualifier against Macau, took time off to visit the centre, which is said to be at the Andheri Sports Complex. The amount donated was the sum total of all the monetary fines that the squad members, including team staff, had to pay national team coach Stephen Constantine over the last two years for minor disciplinary infringements.

"The players obviously didn't break serious rules," a team source explained. "The coach collected the fines from the players for minor issues like going late for the team dinner or practice, not wearing the proper attire to training or team appearance, carrying a mobile phone to a team meeting and not switching off their phones during team meetings. He deemed it best to donate this money to the foundation, which was set up by (Mumbai District Football Association head) Aditya Thackeray and (Bollywood actor) Akshay Kumar."

Constantine hoped that women safety becomes the country's top priority but until then he wants women to learn to defend themselves. "We had always felt that this money should go for a good cause and we decided to help the young women of India defend themselves," Constantine told the-aiff.com. "Everyone back home has wives, mothers, sisters, girlfriends. We want our women to stay safe and they are being taught the basics to prevent and protect themselves."

Captain Chhetri said he wouldn't mind donating for a good cause again in the future. "Given a chance, we will do it again in the future," the striker, who scored in India's 4-1 win against Macau in Bengaluru, told the-aiff.com. "The money collected from the fines have been used for a good cause. We don't mind getting fined anymore."

Meanwhile, defender Sandesh Jhingan pleaded with his fellow men to help make society safe for women. "It's a pity that we have made our society so unsafe for women," Jhingan, who will feature for Kerala Blasters in the Indian Super League, told the-aiff.com. "We all aim to live in a dream society. I hope we all clean our minds and intentions so that the women of our country don't have to feel unsafe anymore."