Roots Football Foundation, incorporated as a not-for-profit trust, was started with the objective of achieving excellence in football training to produce footballers from India who can compete at the national and international level.
The current focus would be to develop more footballers in Bangalore and other parts of Karnataka and provide opportunities to local children to compete at the national level.
Bengaluru had the proud privilege to produce as many as twelve Olympians in the Golden Era (1951-1962) of Indian football - Sarangapani Raman, Ahmed Khan, MA Sattar, P Venkatesh, KP Dhanraj, Mariappa Kempaiah, SA Basheer,Thulukhanamm Shanmugham, Kannayan, Anthony, KV Varadarajan and BN Vajravellu. Arumainayagam who dominated the national scene in the sixties and Ulganathan in the seventies all belonged to this city, and later Shanmuham Venkatesh, Carlton Chapman, Noel Wilson, R C Prakash.
Traditional, popular tournaments like the Ashgold cup and the Stafford Cup which used to draw huge crowds till the seventies are no longer held and top teams like ITI and HAL which used to compete in the national league have shut down.
Even though football is still popular in areas like Austin Town, Murphy Town, Ulsoor, Gowthampura and among the current generation of school going children growing up on the English Premier leagues and La-Liga’s, the city hasn’t been able to keep up with the changing pace of player development across the world. Lack of structured training programmes at the grassroots level, quality age group leagues and tournaments, nutrition etc. combined with factors like age fraud, distracted youth, absence of role models and mentors, lack of career opportunities, drop-outs in higher age groups due to pressure of academies etc. have all contributed to the decline of the sport.