Meghalaya Chief Minster Conrad Sangma is looking to add fresh legs to sports in his state with a special focus on football. His vision, making Meghalaya into a sports powerhouse. “Creating a sports economy, being able to produce medal winners at the national and international level and bring laurels to the state and the country,” Sangma said. “Create jobs while we invest and focus on our youth, from a larger perspective of a youth-oriented program. Focus not just on the medals that we win but also making sports as a part of the culture for the youngsters keeping in mind the physical fitness, as well as the overall character building or bringing in hard work, discipline, and sportsmanship spirit,” he added. The NorthEast state had introduced a sports policy in 2019-20 with the aim to revolutionise Meghalaya. “Based on that, we have created what we call the sports action plan and uh through that there are seven eight different uh areas of focus for us, one being uh to develop large infrastructure and based on that action plan and having to inform you that uh more than a 80% of the expenditure that has ever been done on sports uh in the state, especially in infrastructure. 80% has been done in the last six years in terms of the sports infrastructure that has been created. That’s not just the larger stadiums that we have, or we will be happy, but also stadiums at the grassroot – district, block, subdivision levels – so that there is infrastructure accessibility for our youth from the rural areas also” Sangma told the media. “We have also focused on having large events, whether it is the Meghalaya games on a regular basis. The state games, many national and international level tournaments, have been held in the state and we are also very happy that Meghalaya will be hosting the next national games in 2027,” he added. Come 2024, the state capital co-hosted the historic Durand Cup and in 2025, witnessed India face Bangladesh in an AFC Asian Cup qualifier. Infrastructure Development Over 200 new sports infrastructure at the Grassroot and Elite Level constructed since 2018 and 71 projects above Rs 2 crore sanctioned since 2019. Core infrastructure will be ready by December 2026 to host the National Games. Mawkhanu Sports Complex which is going to be North East’s Largest Dedicated Stadium with 40000 capacity at an estimated cost of Rs 732 crore. The estimated completion of the complex is 2028. Mawdiangdiang Sports Complex which will house an Aquatics Centre and Tennis Complex at an estimated cost of Rs 201 crore. The estimated completion is 2026. Integrated Hospitality and Sporting Complex, an NDB funded project which is going to have dedicated spaces for basketball, badminton, table tennis, squash and volleyball at an estimated cost of Rs 125 crore. It is estimated to be completed by early 2026. P.A. Sangma Sports Complex at a cost of Rs 127.7 crore which is India’s Largest Football Stadium with pre-engineered technology. Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Complex which is a natural football ground, with 15000 capacity at an estimated cost of Rs 100 crore. The synthetic athletic track is set to be completed by 2026. Wahiajer Stadium in Jaintia Hills, an artificial football turf and athletic track with 5000 capacity at a cost of Rs 64.4 crore. Ampati Stadium, South West Garo Hills, football stadium nearing completion at a cost of Rs 46.64 crore. 510 total proposed projects are in line at the block level, district level and state level. Out of these, 215 projects are currently under construction and 295 are proposed infrastructure. Over 4000 athletes and coaches have received over Rs 6 crore under the State Cash Awards Scheme, 350+ athletes receiving scholarships in 2024-25 under the Sports Scholarship Scheme and 50+ prospective coaches being supported for physical education courses such as MPed, BPEd etc. Currently 8000 children are playing and learning football across 111 Grassroots Centres under the Chief Minister’s Football Mission. A total of 250 Grassroots Centres with 25000 children, grants up to Rs 3 crore to local clubs based on their league, 50 artificial turfs across the state, grants to community football and women’s football development, and empowerment of the Meghalaya Football Association are the targets under CMFM by 2029. The Sports Action Plan 2025-2032 has estimated a Rs 1900 crore of investment in the next 3 years including hosting the National Games. Budget for sports allocated in 2024-25 was Rs 246 crore. Nearly 300 sports infrastructure to be constructed across the state leading to jobs in construction, administration/maintenance of infrastructure, coaching and support staff and jobs for sports equipment. Data courtesy: Meghalaya Government Meghalaya Betting on Football CM Sangma said Meghalaya would have the most numbers of Astro Turf football fields in India – 50 by 2028, with more than 100 football training grounds for grassroots level development. “With the ISL and the Northeast United shifting their base to Shillong and putting up a centre of excellence for training youngster, we (the Meghalaya government) have requested them to also partner with us in this grass program.” “If Northeast United is going to put up, the state of the art and the best centre of excellence for football in the country in Shilling, Meghalaya. We expect this to become the hub for development of talent, identification of talent and expecting national as well as international companies and clubs, coming in and waiting in line to see the kind of youngsters who would be the talent that would come out,” he added. Bullish On Sports The CM explained his reasons – why sports? “We are very bullish about sports. It’s not just about medals and the character, but we also see that uh, you know, be able to really build this up into a job creating economy. We expect that the investments we make in the sports will allow us to create close to 15,000 direct and entire jobs, where it’s like, basic things like coaches, physios or people in the team management, so on and so forth. So it’s really an economy that we’re trying to create out of sports, which is something that is a passion for us and it makes sense to really push on it,” he concluded.