FC Madras, based on the outskirts of Chennai, has become the first football academy from Tamil Nadu to receive a five-star rating, the highest under the All India Football Federation’s (AIFF) Academy Accreditation Programme, marking another step in its attempt to build a pathway from the state to the professional game.
The academy was rated four stars last season. It is now among seven academies awarded five stars for 2026-27. Of the 164 applicants this year, 142 earned accreditation, with 16 receiving either four or five stars.
The AIFF assessed areas including technical staff, long-term player development, infrastructure, medical provisions, grassroots work and competitive performance.
Players are offered academic support and life-skills training alongside football, while chess is included in the curriculum to encourage spatial awareness and decision-making. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
“It’s not just about results on the field. It recognises the overall quality of an academy, including coaching standards, player development, infrastructure, sports science, education and safeguarding,” FC Madras technical director Venkatesh Shanmugam said.
For Shanmugam, the larger ambition is to develop players capable of moving beyond the domestic ceiling. Five FC Madras players spent three weeks training with Swedish club IF Brommapojkarna in October 2025, while members of the academy’s technical staff were also part of the exchange programme.
“We want to develop intelligent footballers and responsible young people,” Shanmugam said. “Our vision is to see our players play in Europe. The ISL and I-League are one step for us.”
The academy also sent its under-18 team on a four-match tour of Malaysia and organised domestic exposure trips to Goa and Bengaluru. Its progress has begun to feed into the national set-up, with four players attending India’s under-17 camp before the 2026 AFC U-17 Asian Cup and three called up to an under-20 camp. Adil Aman made the final 23-member squad for the continental tournament in Saudi Arabia.
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The former India captain and national team assistant coach believes such exposure is particularly important in teaching young players to cope with intensity and pressure.
“Under pressure, we are not up to the mark,” Shanmugam said of a wider weakness in Indian football. “We want to see our players play with massive confidence under pressure and know how to get out of it. That is missing badly.”
Yet the academy’s model is designed around the reality that only a small percentage will become professional footballers. Players are offered academic support and life-skills training alongside football, while chess is included in the curriculum to encourage spatial awareness and decision-making. The residential scholarship programme selects talent from trials involving 6,000 to 7,000 players. Individual development plans, sports science and daily performance tracking are also central to the programme.
“It’s a very proud milestone, no doubt, but it’s not the destination for us,” said CKM Dhananjai, FC Madras trustee and board member. “The art and the science of sport should be an arranged marriage and slowly turn into love.”
FC Madras’ under-14 side won the Stay Your Age Cup in 2025, while its under-16 team lifted the Madras Super Cup and JSW Youth Cup. However, Dhananjai said the academy’s measure of success extended beyond trophies.
“If they can’t make it in football, they will definitely make it in life,” he said. “We are preparing leaders for the future.”
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Published on Jul 18, 2026