Gokulam Kerala FC president VC Praveen feels proud at the achievement, having won the Indian Women’s League in 2020.
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The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has nominated Gokulam Kerala FC (GKFC) as India’s representative in the AFC Women’s Club Championship 2020-21. GKFC finished as the champion of the fourth edition of the Indian Women’s League. The 5th edition was originally supposed to be held in Bhubaneswar by Odisha Sports in close coordination with AIFF. However, it had to be postponed owing to the second wave of the pandemic. The League Committee had taken a decision to conduct it later in a proposed new window subject to health parameters.
“We would like to inform you that after having a discussion with the local organising committee (Odisha Sports), AIFF has decided to postpone the 5th edition of the Indian Women’s League (HIWL) for a few months keeping in mind the monsoon, and an expected third wave of infections,” said AIFF General Secretary Mr Kushal Das, in a letter to AFC General Secretary Dato Windsor John.
Gokulam Kerala FC president VC Praveen has expressed his pride at the achievement.
“We are proud to represent our nation through the AFC Women’s Club Championship. This means a lot to the club and the fans. I believe our participation will make other clubs also rethink the importance of women’s football. Let the tournament motivate more football clubs to invest in women’s football like we do. We have never missed a Indian Women’s League edition since our inception. We believe in gender equality and do not want to restrict the game for men alone. If you check, our other businesses too we are giving equal prominence to women employees. Gender equality is one of the philosophies in which the club is run and we are happy to do more for women’s football in the country,” he said as quoted by AIFF’s official website.
Praveen added that the club is driven by the desire to win trophies.
“The club is driven by the ambition to win trophies. We have already made several meetings with our technical staff. With a strong team and the right attitude, we believe we can win the tournament. We believe our women’s team can make a precedent for our men’s team in winning the title in Asia. Your club has the unique distinction of being the Hero I-League champions and the Indian Women’s League champions at the same time. Take us through the footballing philosophy of your club.”
“We have been fielding teams in both tournaments since our club’s inception. We are driven by the passion to win trophies. Be it any tournament, we always want to field a team that can win. We also believe in gender equality and want women to take part actively in the sport. In the Hero I-League season 2019-20, we did a campaign to bring back the women crowd to our stadium by giving free entry to women. Most of the matches had 7 PM kickoffs and we had our campaign theme as ‘Nighttime belongs to women also’. We will be continuing these works once the stadium opens after the pandemic. We are also in consultation with the state government to start an academy for women players from Kerala,” concluded Praveen.
