At 11,000 feet above sea level, Indian football’s newest destination also has green goals

At an altitude of 11,000 feet above sea level, it is the highest-altitude football stadium in the country and among the top 10 in the world. Now, the picturesque ground will soon be home to Ladakh’s first professional club – 1 Ladakh FC.
And Indian football’s newest destination isn’t merely content winning on the field. It is chasing green goals off-the-field as well.
From players cycling to the training grounds to using aluminium water bottles and participating in cleaning water streams, it has come up with an ambitious plan to be the ‘cleanest and greenest’ club in India, with a target to attain Net Zero Carbon 2025.
For a professional football club that has to crisscross across the country to play matches, this can be quite a challenge. But one of the founding members of the club said they have already started to take small steps towards their project.
Ladakh FC logo. (Twitter)
For starters, the players will all don an ‘eco-friendly’ kit manufactured a Danish brand, which will have a dry-dye concept with zero water consumption and zero waste-water discharges. This, they say, will reduce energy consumption 50 per cent.
Wearing those eco-friendly kits is just one aspect of their quest. The entire squad will have to make certain sacrifices to reach the goal. The first rule is that all the players and staff will have to cycle from the hotel to their training ground in Leh. As part of the team’s Zero Plastic policy, all the players will have their customised aluminium water bottles which they will have to carry everywhere they go.
Lastly, as part of their contracts, players will have to participate in initiatives such as cleaning rivulets and community awareness programs in Ladakh.
Tashi Gyalson, chairman of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh, told The Indian Express, such an initiative is the need of the hour.
“The glaciers are receding fast and in Ladakh, we’re mostly dependent on glacier water. There are villages in which glaciers have disappeared and people were forced to move to other villages. The snowfall pattern has drastically changed over the past decades. We now receive more rainfall than snowfall and it surely can’t be a good thing,” Gyalson said. “If there is a state or union territory in India that is seeing the impact of climate change firsthand, it’s Ladakh and so there’s no better place to have green initiatives.”
Football in LadakhLadakh has received a massive boost in football in the past year. Its first step was being affiliated with the All India Football Federation (AIFF) in February last year. Then last December, it created hory of sorts competing in the Santosh Trophy. And it was quite a debut — they drew 2-2 with Uttarakhand in their opening fixture.
Women’s football isn’t far behind. In fact, before the Santosh Trophy, the Ladakh Football Association which was founded only in 2019 — had sent a group of girls to represent their state at the U-17 Women’s National Championships.
The Ladakh team that played in the Santosh Trophy. (Ladakh FA)
Tsering Angmo, the general secretary of the Ladakh FA, told this paper that football was always played in Ladakh as a hob but there was no professional structure whatsoever. “It was just local tournaments being played. Once the Ladakh FA was formed, we saw almost 33 clubs being formed. That only goes to show that despite not being a very populous state, football has a very promising future here,” she said.
From May this year, the association will start a league in both their dricts – Leh and Kargil – and the winner should get into the 2nd Division of the I-League. That’s going to be 1 Ladakh FC’s first challenge, winning the inaugural league. The founder of the club says it should not be that much of a challenge since it’ll be the only professional club in the region and it will cons of quality players.
“While our first preference will be to sign players from Ladakh, we will ensure that a minimum of four players initially are from the region. We want this club to be a motivation for youngsters in the region. They should know that they can have a future as a professional footballer,” the official said.
For the trials of the team, the club has a unique idea. They’re going to call on all the ice hockey players and those who compete in winter sports.
‘Home advantage’The club feels scouting local players, they will be able to have a natural advantage over the visiting sides, for whom playing at a high altitude will be a big challenge. Oxygen levels are at an average of 65 per cent and can drop even lower, making it very difficult for people to breathe, local officials said. It could take a day or two only to get adjusted to it. And even if they get adjusted to it, teams will have to change their style of play to adapt to the conditions.
Home advantage aside, Angmo, who was a footballer herself, says players will have a tremendous advantage even playing away because when you train in Ladakh, you develop good stamina and that can prove to be the deciding factor in competitive games.
A club official, who did not wish to be named, added the players will have to be creative while playing.

“It’s almost impossible to run continuously. So we definitely will not see ‘high-press’ football. You have to be creative while playing here and play the ball on the feet. Since you can’t run all the time, you have to be creative. And that’s going to be the brand of Ladakhi football,” the official said.