New Friends Club (NFC) Dantewara is 35 years old and the club is currently participating in the ongoing I-League third division after being runner-up in the Chhattisgarh Football League.

But the club’s original motive is quite different. The club has been on a mission over the decades to offer financial sustenance to the local boys through football. According to NFC secretary Ravi Mondal, the local boys who are coming to play football are fighting against dire financial distress. 

The parents of some of the boys are daily laborers, and some footballers’ parents work as sharecroppers. They do not have the needed meals even. 

Amidst the sheer poverty, the youth of that region were being influenced and joined to Maoist movement and the process is still on. Secretary revealed, “Maoist movement is still there. But that does not reflect the common people’s everyday life. Their target is the administration and bureaucracy.” 

Out of NFC's 28 registered footballers this season, 20 percent are local boys. Although NFC is yet to win a match in their group of the ongoing I-league third division, according to coach, Ajay Kashyap local footballers who took part in the team’s all four matches also proved their mettle. 

Still, NFC itself has been going through financial distress and if the club does not get any financial grant in the near future then its effort to transform the local boys might be stopped. 

There is only one ground and a cemented stadium owned by the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMFC) where along with football, the ground is often engaged due to other sports disciplines' practice. Before the I-league, the team had to move to Bhoopal for a two-week intense training.

The club had spent nearly Rs 15 lakh to build up the team for the I-league third division. Secretary divulged, “It was too tough to accumulate the amount to build up the team. The club officials and some of the club's former footballers including me donated money from their own.”

He added, " We do not get any financial support and if it continues then we will also be forced to stop football activities. Previously Dantewara had 18 clubs who used to play football regularly. But due to financial crunch, six clubs have stopped playing football." 

NFC officials seem optimistic now with the change of state government in Chhattisgarh. Mondal concluded, “With the arrival of BJP government I feel something will happen. We are expecting some financial grant from the new government.”