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NRI boost for Kerala women's football

A US-based Keralite lady, who is a member of a football team in the league circuit there, has returned to her native city with a mission - - to promote women's football in Kerala.

Margaret Miller, along with a few others - - including senior national coach Shaji Cherian Oommen, has launched the Kerala Women's Football Club, the first of its kind in the state. It is aimed at regaining the lost glory of women's football in the state.

Office-bearers of the club, speaking to newsmen in Trivandrum on Wednesday, said the club will select 24 girls from various schools in the state and provide them football kits. Shaji Oommen, who has coached the state and national women's teams for over 15 years, will train the selected players.

Affiliated to the Kerala Football Association, the team will be attached to the regional coaching centre of the Kerala Sports Council.

More than just extending initial funding, Miller, who is the president of the club, hopes to raise more funds from Kerala associations in the US. Her husband Thomas Miller is the chairman of the club, brother Giles Francis, the treasurer, and coach Shaji Oommen, the secretary.

Miller had her school and college education in the city and also worked as a lecturer in a college for a few years. She was a member of All Saints badminton and table tennis teams and captained the hockey team. She was also a regular in the Kerala University hockey team.

After migrating to the US in 1980, she joined a women's football league ''Prime of Life'' in San Diego in 1992 and has been playing for the UC United team since then.

UNI