“Even before the Indian men’s football team makes it to the FIFA World Cup, the women’s team is likely to qualify, considering the stage the team is currently at and the new pool of talent that is emerging. Much of this success can be attributed to the academy culture that has witnessed a monumental rise over the last decade,” said Saravana Dharaman, Deputy Secretary, Karnataka State Football Association (KSFA). Several academy owners pointed out that football culture in Bengaluru was driven by different factors in different time periods. While earlier it was the sporting culture of the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) from the 1970s to the early 2000s, it has been the emergence of academies in the later phase. Bappaditya Bhattacharjee, founder and director of the Roots Football Club, explained that when the PSUs dominated the Bengaluru football scene, there were role models in the form of marquee players whom young people looked up to, which helped sustain interest in the sport across the city. “Once the PSUs stopped recruitment and their teams were gradually …