Kolkata: The West Bengal government has decided to hand over a 15 acre land on lease to the All India Football Federation (AIFF) for just 1 Rupee to set up the National Centre of Excellence in Kolkata.
“The state has decided to lease out a 15 acre land in New Town to the AIFF to set up the National Centre of Excellence for football. A football stadium and a football academy would also be there,” announced state education minister Partha Chatterjee as quoted by PTI.
A National Center of Excellence (NCoE) will be set up in the city with the help of FIFA in two years time, AIFF president Praful Patel had announced “which will have all kinds of facilities under one roof, mental and physical training, the best of classroom training.” A meeting regarding that was held with the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee following which the she had announced that a land will be gifted to the Indian football governing body as a gift from the state.
A land near Rajarhat New Town in Kolkata will be given for that purpose, it was confirmed in the cabinet meeting held on Monday. The 15 acre land will be given for a period of 90 years on exchange of Re.1. A new stadium will also be set up on the same land, Chatterjee confirmed.
The Centre of Excellence is set to house the senior men’s national team as well as the women’s national team. At the same time all age groups teams will also be housed in the same centre, Patel had said.
It is a big achievement for Kolkata which is already the hub of Indian football The city where football is worshipped as a religion, set a record attendance in the U-17 World Cup, which also saw India create a new record for highest attendance in a single FIFA U-17 tournament.
The ‘City of Joy’ hosted a total of 11 matches, including the final in the recently concluded World Cup, which was hugely successful making India’s first FIFA tournament the biggest U-17 World Cup ever.