India To Host FIFA U-17 World Cup

By M.Santhiran NEW DELHI, Nov 30 (Bernama) -- Asian Football Confederation (AFC) extended its support to India to host the FIFA U-17 World Cup in September 2017, as part of its efforts to bring the most popular sport to the subcontinent. In a glittering ceremony here at the capital, attended by Bollywood superstars Abhisek Bachan and John Abraham, AFC president Shaikh Salman Ebrahim Al Khalifa said India had all the potential to become a great footballing nation in the near future. "This tournament is just the beginning for this country and I have all the confidence that the All India Football Federation (AIFF) can put up a good show in two years’ time," said Shaikh Salman when kicking off preparations for the tournament here with six venues for the FIFA U-17 tournament identified. He said as part of preparations, AIFF will be hosting the AFC U-16 Championship next year. The Indian senior national team is currently ranked 172nd in the FIFA world ranking. The six venues identified are New Delhi, Goa, Kolkata, Cochin, Guwahati and Mumbai. Meanwhile, AIFF president Praful Patel said India was among the top football teams in Asia in the 50s and 60s where the country qualified for the 1950 World Cup in Brazil. "However we declined to play in the prestigious tournament when we were not allowed to play barefooted," recalled Patel. He said now it would be an opportunity for India to bring back its past glory days in the game by hosting the FIFA U-17. Praful acknowledged that the AIFF cannot transform Indian football overnight but needed to start from "bottom" and hoped to host the FIFA U-20 tournament as the federation's next phase of efforts to bring the game closer to the 1.25 billion people of the country. -- BERNAMA