New Delhi: Top class infrastructure will be the biggest legacy the FIFA U-17 World Cup will leave behind, says Javier Ceppi Tournament director of the Local Organising Committee.
The lack of proper infrastructure has for long been a big barrier to the development of Indian football. However, things took a turn when India were given the rights to host the FIFA U-17 World Cup this year.
“Infrastructure is going to be the biggest legacy of the World Cup, you have seen how things have been,” said Ceppi in a chat with the Press Trust of India.
The stadiums and the footballing infrastructure of the country at present lies in huge contrast to it’s earlier day’s, with the Salt lake stadium in Kolkata even earning the ‘world class status’ by Ceppi himself. A huge credit of this new sudden development goes to the gala event, which will be the first big FIFA tournament to be held in the country, in it’s entire history.
Not only the infrastructure, which has developed to a huge extent. But acording to Ceppi, the millions of Indians taking to the sport will be another legacy of the tournament.
“11 million kids taking to football in the country is another legacy. It has brought about a football revolution in India,” said the FIFA official.
The ‘Mission XI Million’ was an initiative which aimed at introducing football in 12,000 schools across the 37 cities in the country. It was launched by the then sports minister Vijay Goel and All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Praful Patel in February earlier this year.
“There is a lot of interest in the sport among the youngsters and they are very passionate about it. We want to transform this passion into something more concrete. This is a mission to connect with these kids, to change football and sports in India forever,” Goel had said.
Speaking after the completion of the tournament’s official cars handover ceremony at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Javier Ceppi assured that India is 100 per cent ready to host the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
“We are in a very good position at the moment as far as preparation is concerned. Everything has been put in place,” he said.
He also wished the Indian team luck and urged the boys not to be too bothered about the result, but focus on giving their best shot in all the matches.
Meanwhile, Hyundai Motors India Ltd. has acquired the exclusive rights to provide transportation to the FIFA officials during the tournament.