 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. Today we are in Ladhyaada reporting from the Indian Women's League which is India's national football league and we are joined by Memol Rocky who is the first woman to become a coach of the national football team. She is currently serving as the coach of India's national women's senior football team. So we are going to talk to her about her journey of rising to this position, what challenges she faces, the current status of India's women's football and a lot more. So thank you Memol for joining us today. To start, can you talk about your journey first from going from an athlete to a national coach? What kind of obstacles did you face? Why did you come into football in the first place? Can you tell us something about yourself? I belong to Goa. I played from my childhood I am in Goa and I was into athletics first then I slowly shifted to football as one of my coach said it's a good sport you can join and I should enjoy seeing my brother playing football so I started playing football and maybe within two years I played for the country as a player and then when I was playing I had a good guidance from my coaches to do my licenses. I should travel with the team as managers earlier, the Goa State team and slowly I did all my licenses. In 2012 I was with the national team later on. From 2012 I was with the age group teams slowly slowly worked hard for it now where I am definitely there will be a lot of hands which have put in which have helped me to be here but then from your side also you have to work hard for it so I think from my side I did a lot of hard work to be here being a woman to be here everybody might know this it takes a lot of things to be here so I again happy to be here at this position and I can hold the girls team it is so I'm a woman myself so I can understand I have played for mice like I have played so I know what is needed what is wanted but then yes still learning from things what I am moving around and trying to make the best team what I can do for the national team. Can you tell us more about the sort of obstacles you face considering the fact that it is still predominantly a male dominated sport so even during your training you might be in spaces which are more you know had more male presence how you know what was that experience as you said this is a male dominating country so when you say that word only you can understand in football it's more about male it's a male sport normally so slowly now it has started taking a change so but when we were playing or when we were doing all our licenses it was always male and you might be the only female in a course but then the colleagues what I had they really helped me too because I was young and wanted to learn more so it was always with the colleagues what I had they were really helping me out but then again you are never you were highlighted because you are the only female or maybe the two females who did courses together but when it comes to a national team to be a national team coach hundreds of coaches around in India to be this to become this but then I think I was a lucky one worked hard for it I believe in God so I think maybe this was my opportunity but then while playing also we that and the sports football was not given that much of importance but it took time we played till we could and I think when I was already with the national team also I should play for the state with the senior team so there were a lot of problems but then it was we had to manage it by ourselves because I come like my father was into sports so I come from a sports background so my father was always interested so it was no pressure from my family because they were like supporting me for everything I got a job in sports authority of Goa as a football coach so again where I was into sports so it was like we worked hard for it but you know being a girl and to be at this position it really took a lot of things but then it's you cannot express is or you cannot tell it by words but there were a lot of things but really thanks a lot of people who are around I cannot name people because there were a lot of people to help me to be here so I would just say thank you to them who are really supporting me still for this and again I will say Federation believes in me that's why I am here because I was earlier with the age group team slowly I shifted to the senior team it was not like suddenly I was in the senior team earlier I was assistant coach and then shifted to the head coach post so I think and the girls also again the credit goes to the girls they accepted me as a coach and they believed in me they worked for me because finally it's you what you tell the players they know they are playing for the national team but players also input for me because now also the way they are supporting me for whatever I'm saying because finally it's what you say to the girls they have to do it so it's not like you can do some magic until the girls show it on the field it becomes difficult but then I think girls also really supported me for that and during your tenure under your guidance the it has been seen has been reported that the football team is performing much better than it was before the winning matches and just generally doing better so can you tell us more about what sort of changes you brought in the team to you know to make this happen one thing I started making them believe in themselves it's earlier it was like they should think we might we can it was always a question mark so I just made them believe in themselves we worked on that and we had this four months in our hand together the girls were staying together so we worked hard for that plus the only thing I like in my thing is always playing attacking football which I I made sure the girls also believe in what I tell them to do which they if you see starting we had a lot of problems at the start because we were not ready for it we lost Hero Gold Cup that was very sad and disappointing in the country we lost to Nepal first but then those were preparation for SAF and Olympic qualifiers round two and I think once you see after that once we played Nepal we always defeated them like 3-1 a bigger margin so it's only like the girls need time and especially I had this young team every jay just 21 years so again they also need time because they have hardly played in international matches if you count our girls playing them if you have counted them previously they might have only reached 20 or 25 international matches in their career in this four months we have played almost 20 international matches now so it's like one thing good what the girls got this exposure again if Federation had not believed in us it would have been difficult so they believed in the women's team me and the players that's why we were here and with this good result and like you're saying women won the the players are not getting the chance to play so many matches before this is probably also true the fact that it is again a women's sport and it is not given as much attention we have to accept that at least till now it is not being given as much attention so do you feel like this kind of you know differential treatment which is given to the sport is all also thanks the players morale at the end of the day like even here for that matter the match timings are such that they're playing in such you know very in such extreme heat and then the stadium is empty so that kind of thing do you think it brings them down a bit and it needs to be of course it needs to be improved so what do you feel about that the problem it's not about sports only it's everywhere if you see there's a differentiate between men and female if it is any job let it be a media people anywhere you see any not a word sports it's anywhere but then I for me at least from the time I have started into football I can see a lot of a lot of things happening for women's football at least I'll talk about women's football a lot of things happening a lot of improvement the accommodations have been better the traveling has been better earlier we should travel by train and now it's by flight so the players also enjoying the best facilities for now we are traveling if you see in this four months almost two months we have been internationally expo like we were going for this exposure is exposure so you know it's not like you cannot say but things again I think need time and we need to give results also otherwise who will invest money in you so I think this time the results were better Federation is like supportive so a lot of things were happening this time at least I can I cannot say about past here there were a lot of when I played a hardly we like there was no money involved there was no league there was nothing once a year we should play a national so those time were different now if you compare it's definitely changed definitely and you're talking about people are not ready to invest so right now where is I mean is this like a lot of government has the government funding increase or the private sponsors coming what sort of changes are there definitely I cannot talk about this money but who's investing in we have our sponsors in the federations we have whenever we go for any international tour it's this government who's helping us to you know travel this international matter so it's a lot of hands put in together but then we cannot name any person who's sponsoring and Federation cannot we cannot just take any any local sponsors so whatever is linked through Federation we can go to that but I think definitely the things have been improved and we are getting better facilities this is also in terms of because the players they're not getting proper full-time contracts and also fix their playtime if they're not able to play full-time then of course they won't be able to progress is clear that's a wrong thing you know we think national team will give them money or national team will do a contract with them it's about the because the club culture is not around normally it's if you see any boys or men's team or any international like abroad teams they always been in a contract with a club and they just come to play for the national team they hardly get any money for that it's just the name but then here now what happened we don't have a club culture so we always think Federation has to do it so that's something wrong and then but still I think what Federation what Federation is paying them it's a good money what we get earlier I can I don't want to say what is it's now earlier we should get 25 rupees so now it's much much much much much better what the girls are getting per day allowance what they get the stay is there free it's food is the best food what they get because it's like all the aphazios take care of the diet and things so it's the best food they get back home I'm sure if I'm also at my home I will not have a big meal breakfast I will just have maybe one fruit maybe some porridge and some bread and some toast but once you are in the camp you have different things to have and it's the proper diet so I think once a player comes to a camp they enjoy they they have all these facilities so I think you cannot criticize for anything like that okay and also coming to Lenin women's league how do you feel the league has progressed since it started in terms of the players the clubs and in terms of the media coverage it's getting definitely as you know earlier what teams we had now we have 12 teams so again that has become better the media coverage has become better we have we are on Facebook live a lot of people watching it we have just put it on the lot of people watching it so that's one thing where we are getting attention that also comes with the national team results so it's all I think linked with the results and I think players are getting well paid in this league at least I know all my national players are with the different clubs everybody is playing with a good amount of money so it's not like earlier we should play for free so now nothing comes free so now everybody is getting paid clubs are taking interest two three clubs who have really paid the players well and some young teams are there they are getting better and they have come for exposure I think so but for us it's like we can see a little more girls earlier it was like if six teams so now this time it's like 12 teams better for us and can you talk about the preparations of the under 17 how is that going how is the scouting process going and you know what are your general expectations from the Indian team whatever is finalized we started I'm in the scouting panel so we started our scouting from Kolhapur the junior nationals so we selected some players the camp has already started in Goa so there are like 35 girls the camp has started and slowly now the coach will start shuffling the teams more of scouting will be all over India a lot of nationals happening a lot of tournaments happening for them and think at the end of the year we should get the best best of the best girls for the World Cup team because that's that the biggest platform so we will also work for it and we will Federation also is doing a lot of things for them so it's a lot of exposures for them there is a lot of things it's like we just need to sit and have patients like believe in the women's team I think they will do it a good job for sure finally last question what do you feel about the future of women's football in India seeing that India has been given a chance to host there under 17 I can just say it's growing for sure if you see earlier and what's happening we had never had a World Cup like we had never participated in a World Cup so this is first ever time so you can see a lot of things happening for women's football in senior team you have seen the results coming up young team so I think it's just the time and patience and everybody needs to believe in the women's team or the girls team it's just that I think it'll do better thank you me more lucky for talking to us today and thank you for watching this clip pleasure thank you