BANGALORE: Young football fans in the Garden City can now dream of donning the Bengaluru FC colours with the I-league leaders on Tuesday announcing the launch of the BFC Soccer Schools programme aimed to hook kids in the Under-7, U-9 and U-11 age groups.

Living upto their launch promise, the Jindal Steel Works owned club revealed plans to spread the game to the next generation and tap the best talent from their catchment area. The programme which will begin with 24 kids, both boys and girls, in each of the groups plan to spread across the city before going Pan India.

"The soccer school will be based in Bellandur to start with but we will soon spread to other areas as the interest grows. The academy, for U-13 to U-19, will run parallel with the soccer schools.

It won't be an elite set up and the youngsters in our youth academy are from both the affluent and poor families," Youth Development head coach Richard Hood told reporters at the Bangalore Football Stadium.

"The idea is to get more Bangalore based players into the XI by training them at the right age. We are looking at non-residential player development programmes lasting 10-11 months.

Our U-15 team did well, finished second, in the MUPC tournament and the U-19 squad is soon leaving for the U-19 I-league. Through the programme the kids will have a long term association with the club and in effect each of them will become a BFC fan for life," Hood, an UEFA 'B' and AFC 'A' license holder, said.

Contact: soccerschools@bengalurufc.com or 9900859764.