MESSAGE FROM CEO
I am pleased to welcome you to the Zinc Football website. As part of our commitment towards social investment programmes and initiatives, last year, we began taking small steps towards a larger ambition of contributing to the development of Indian football while uplifting children and communities in the areas where we operate.
It gives me immense pleasure to share that our dream — of promoting the world’s most popular sport to change the lives of underprivileged communities in Rajasthan — has finally taken shape in the form of Zinc Football.
The initiative, one-of-a-kind in India, covers five districts in Rajasthan, where free coaching is provided to over 350 children by certified football trainers. In association with government schools, we have set up 12 community football centres, where children from all backgrounds are imparted training.
At the heart of this initiative is a residential academy — Zinc Football Academy at Zawar, which will house 40 young players from this year. These candidates have been selected after rigorous scouting at special selection camps which saw participation from over 4000 children from across Rajasthan. The academy is a state-of-the-art facility with world-class infrastructure and is equipped with the country’s first ever ‘technology-hinged football training’, the unique F-Cube technology, which is at the core of this programme. Hindustan Zinc Limited is committed to providing these children free of cost quality education and training from qualified support staff to groom them into professional footballers and educated citizens.
Rajasthan has had a rich football legacy. The state has produced iconic players like Magan Singh Rajvi, an Arjuna awardee who represented India with great distinction. With the launch of this initiative, we are devoting ourselves to identifying and nurturing raw talent from the grassroots to bring back Rajasthan on the football map of India.
Yours Sincerely,
Arun Misra
ABOUT THE INITIATIVE
The vision to expand the outreach of Vedanta’s footballing initiative in Rajasthan led to the birth of Zinc Football in June 2017. In September that year, the foundation stone for the Zinc Football Academy in Zawar, Udaipur was laid.
With special focus on scouting, as many as 43 talent evaluation camps and district and state-level football tournaments were organised across 23 districts in Rajasthan in the last one year. Over 4500 young players (aged 14 or below) were closely assessed and the top 40 among them were shortlisted after a rigorous filtering process. These players were offered scholarships to the Zinc Football Academy, where they would be enrolled under the residential student-athlete model and would receive free training, besides education and nutrition, for the next four years.
Zinc Football holds a philosophy that “every child should have an opportunity to play”. That is why Zinc Football has set up 12 community football schools, named as Zinc Football schools, in Hindustan Zinc operational areas. These include Zawar, Debari and Agucha. Over 350 children receive football training at these academies on a weekly basis by All India Football Federation certified coaches. The initiative aims at touching the lives of 2 lakh children by 2022.
At its residential academy in Zawar, Zinc Football has set up a best-in-class player performance analysis centre with the F-Cube technology, artificial turf grounds, training and practice grounds to regularly monitor the development of all programme participants.
The programme also lays special emphasis on providing an opportunity to children to play a large number of competitive matches so that they can get enough competition exposure and one day go on to represent the state or the national team.
Hindustan Zinc
Hindustan Zinc is India’s largest and world’s second largest zinc-lead miner. With more than 50 years of operational experience, we give highest priority to safety of our people and conservation of scarce natural resources through technology and innovation. With a reserve base of 105.7 million MT with an average zinc-lead grade of 10.5% and mineral resources of 305.6 million MT, our mine life is over 25 years. Our fully integrated zinc operations currently hold 78% market share in India’s primary zinc industry. We are among the top 10 silver producers globally with an annual capacity of 600 MT.
We are a subsidiary of Vedanta Limited which owns 64.9% stake in the company while the Government of India retains a 29.54% stake. We are listed on the NSE and BSE.
Hindustan Zinc’s operations comprise five lead-zinc mines, one rock phosphate mine, four hydrometallurgical zinc smelters, two lead smelters, one pyro metallurgical lead-zinc smelter as well as sulphuric acid and captive power plants in northwest India. The total metal production capacity is 834,000 MT of zinc and 201,000 MT of lead. We have facilities located in Rampura Agucha, Chanderiya, Dariba,Kayad and Zawar in Rajasthan, along with zinc-lead processing and refining facilities. We also have a silver refinery at Pantnagar in Uttarakhand.
Technical Partner The Football Link
TheFootballLink Sport Private Limited (TFL) is one of India’s premier football organizations with professional expertise in organizing large-scale football initiatives for developing grassroots football in the country. This is done by utilizing Technology (F-Cube) and sustainable Infrastructure (FZone).
Since its inception in 2011, TFL has organized numerous football initiatives and programs and will continue to strive for more. The company also established TheFootballLink Trust (TFL Trust) in 2013 to bring together a systematic scouting system and access to quality sporting facilities in the country to the lower-income segments of society. The aim of TFL Trust Scholarship Fund is to facilitate the underprivileged youth find their appropriate position in the Indian Football System.
The company also works with the Sports Authority of India (SAI) to organize various grassroots initiatives and promote the philosophy of “Football for All.”
