they were the champions of the inaugural edition of indian womens league in 2016 followed by their runnersup finish the next season they missed out on the next seasons but even a week ahead of the deadline for sending their final entry for iwl 2023 eastern sporting union esu were unsure of their participation this was despite emerging champions in the state league and having themselves nominated from the state by the all manipur football association amfaparticipating in iwl this time was a lastminute decision we were nominated by the association but did not have the funds to send a team for the league esu director of football programme homendro irngbam told toi from imphal it was then that somebody chipped in with some funding and we could finally afford the flight tickets to ahmedabad to begin withthis has been the plight of one of the most successful womens clubs in india and highlights the problems of communityfunded clubs across the country and with all india football federation aiff setting minimum wage for iwl players from next season a muchneeded step towards making football a viable profession for women footballers it can be the death knell for communitybased clubs without subsidy and support from aiffthis time the uncertainty and anxiety regarding their participation affected the teams preparations for the premier domestic league also with a few of the players like elangbam panthoi chanu and moirangthem mandakini devi away on national duty for the last couple of months and eight footballers from the club named in the manipur team for the recent senior national championship in bengaluru the squad has failed to have a comprehensive training session together so farwe reached ahmedabad yesterday monday and are looking to get a couple of training sessions before our first match against kickstart fc on thursday goalkeeping coach media manager and former esu footballer s premjit meitei said from ahmedabad on tuesdaypremjit a retired navy official and an afc b licence coach is one among a group of support staff who have been assisting the club voluntarily in their bid to give back to the club and the community the same is true of their head coach l ronibala chanu the former goalkeeping coach of the senior womens national team and the first indian woman who complete the afc level 3 goalkeeping coursea former teammate of the legendary bembem devi chanu too volunteered for the coaching role in her former clubit is a strange scenario where the indian super league clubs barring two of them are averse to starting a womens team while the communityfunded clubs devoid of sponsors institutional funding or state help are trying to run the game with their love for ityet with players like panthoi mandakini s lynda kom irom prameswori devi as well as yumnam kamala devi the top scorer in their titlewinning campaign in 2016 in their ranks esu will still be one of the favourites to make it to the semifinals from group