This season, we were proud to support something that’s never happened in our region before: the AIFF Golden Baby League Season 3, hosted in partnership with the Vocational Higher Secondary School, Chathiyara, Thamarakulam, Alappuzha, and Pillai College. What started as an ambitious plan turned into one of the largest grassroots football gatherings this area has seen, with more than 500 children taking part across categories.
The league ran two flagship categories side by side, the Alappuzha Little Champs and the Alappuzha Little Angels, the latter an all-girls category giving young female footballers their own dedicated stage to compete on. Teams arrived from across the district, kitted out in club colors, ready to play in front of a home crowd at the Chathiyara Football Academy grounds. The energy on the sidelines matched the energy on the pitch, coaches, parents, and volunteers all showing up to make sure the day ran smoothly for hundreds of young athletes.
Organizing an event at this scale, and being the first to bring it to this region, took months of coordination between schools, football associations, and volunteers. But seeing the sheer number of children lined up in their team jerseys, medals around necks, trophies on display, it was worth every bit of the planning. Events like this don’t just create a day of football; they plant the seed for a footballing culture that will keep growing in this region for years to come.
