Young Footballers Stage Silent Protest After Trade Fair Takes Over Silchar Football Academy Ground

“We want to play for India one day, but a circus camp is being set up instead and taking away our opportunity to practise”, this was the major concern mounting among the emerging football players of Silchar who take classes at the Silchar Football Academy under Silchar Sporting Club.

A group of around 30 emerging football players from Silchar Football Academy staged a one-hour silent protest on Sunday (November 23), with their faces covered in black cloth, as a symbol that their voices are being silenced. They expressed deep frustration after their practice ground was handed over for a trade fair.

Subimal Dhar (Shitil), CEO and Founder–Joint Secretary of Silchar Football Academy, said, “The football academy started under DSA in 1997 at the Town Club Ground. Later, we took the Silchar Sporting Club ground on lease for 25 years and developed it completely — the fencing, playing surface, everything — with government and private support. But after the lease ended, the agreement was not renewed. A few days ago, Silchar Sporting Club rented the land for a trade fair. We have taken shelter under the law and filed a case. We also informed the local MLA, ministers, MP and the District Commissioner to intervene.”

Dhar said three players from the academy have represented India, including Jianchun Rongmei, while many others have played for Assam or secured government jobs in departments such as ONGC, Police, SBI and Income Tax through sports. “I don’t know what will be the future of this academy and these kids,” he said.

He added that the ground was built with soft alluvial soil brought from the riverbank to minimise injury risks in a body-contact sport like football. “We maintain the field throughout the year. But now trucks, JCBs and heavy machinery have completely damaged it. When the field will return to its natural state is impossible to say. Winter is when our players rely on this natural field the most.”

The academy currently trains nearly 150 students. Dhar said that in the last 27 years, nothing other than sports and athletics had ever been allowed on the ground. “This is the first time such an event has been permitted,” he said.

He questioned the authorities who approved the trade fair, saying, “Those who gave the permission are themselves sportspersons and sports organisers. Someone from this ground could have played for India someday, but now the students have been deprived. This is inhuman and unacceptable. How could they allow this?”

The protesting students appealed to the District Sports Association and Silchar Sporting Club to “be human enough” to remove the trade fair and return the field so that their winter practice season is not lost.

The trade fair is scheduled to run from December 1 to December 25, with preparations already underway for more than a week. It remains uncertain how long dismantling will take afterwards, or whether organisers will compensate for the severe damage — tyre marks, drilling, and soil disturbance — expected on the field.