A local football team from a tiny valley community in India’s most troubled region is inspiring the country after its players made it to the professional league, with a helping hand from their Scottish coach.

Four years ago, a newspaper owner in Srinagar, the summer capital of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, started a football club to help a community devastated by flooding.

Shamim Meraj, a Muslim and editor of the Kashmir Monitor, had no cash, no staff and no pitch when he started his dream of a club that would rally the valley’s spirit; but in four years he has seen his beloved Real go from passion project to India’s professional I-League.

This week, the team made up of students and semi-professionals employed by a bank became the first from the state to qualify for India’s top division league. The I-League is distinct from the Indian Soccer League, but boasts some of the country’s oldest clubs - some dating back nearly a century.

In a sign of the inspiration to the conflicted state, Real Kashmir Football Club’s other owner is a hotel owner and Hindu priest, Sandeep Chattoo, a close pal of Meraj.