Nearly a decade ago, D. Vignesh, a Bengaluru boy in his mid-teens, was on the lookout for opportunities to play football in a competitive environment. He practised at the Ozone Academy. Outside of the competitions that his institute would register for, he and his group of friends did not have many games to look forward to.
It was then that he heard of The Amateur League (TAL), which started in 2014 with the aim of giving enthusiasts a platform to test their skills in an 11-versus-11 setting. Vignesh and his mates did not have a full-fledged team, but TAL slotted him in one of the many that had signed up.
“It was the first time I played 11-a-side,” Vignesh recollects. “Otherwise, I had to be part of the C-division (run by the Bangalore District Football Association). But there, in each group, there were four teams, and you got just three games. Only if you qualified out of that group were there more chances.” In TAL, he got 10 to 12 guaranteed matches. “It was a very professional set-up, with referees and analysis. There were corporates and semi-professional teams. I think even Ashley Westwood (former coach of the city’s biggest club, Bengaluru FC) played. I understood my body better, how much load it could take, and how fit I could be.”
