Kozhikode, May 16 (IANS): Gokulam Kerala FC will conduct this years AFC Grassroot Festival online for under-12 kids on Sunday. Indian football legend I.M. Vijayan will speak to the kids online during the grassroot day celebrations along with a slew of foreign coaches.

The festival will go online at 3 p.m. and entry is free as there is no fee charged for registration. This is the first time an Indian club is conducting the grassroot festival online. Already All Indian Football Federation has given a go-head for the online grassroot day celebrations.

The club has also been conducting an online webinar football training class in association with Impulse Solutions, a start-up company in Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram since the start of the lockdown. The students registered for the webinar course will also take part in the AFC Grassroot Festival.

The foreign coaches, who will be present in the grassroot celebrations are Matt Ward (Australia), Leigh Robinson (UK), Simone Quintieri (Italy), and James Mcaloon (UK).

The club is also planning to kickstart a-week-long online football activities for the kids after the grassroot day celebration.

"Every year we used to conduct grassroot celebrations and we thought about organizing it online this year due to the lockdown restrictions. While almost all of the football activities are on a standstill, we have come up with an online football course and now we are conducting the grassroot festival also. We want to make sure the kids get the right information about the basics of the game even during lockdown," said V.C. Praveen, the President of the GKFC.

"This is vacation time for children in Kerala, and we used to conduct a lot of grassroot activities during this time. Due to lockdown children might be stressed and these kinds of activities will keep them engaged and also can be used to increase their knowledge in the game," said Bino George, the technical director

of Gokulam Kerala FC.