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India successfully hosted the U-17 FIFA World Cup and all signs point to the fact that by and large, the tournament was very well received by the fans and viewers across the world.
In the build-up to the quadrennial event, several footballing legends like Carles Puyol, Fernando Morientes and Marcel Desailly came down, made their presence felt and interacted with the fans in India. However, unlike usual sporting events in the country, the U17 FIFA World Cup did not have Bollywood stars promoting it.
The organisers decided that the marketing of the stellar event would be purely from a sporting perspective and credit to them for getting it right.
However on Friday, speaking at the India Football Forum in Mumbai, Tournament Director of the Local Organising Committee for the FIFA U17 WC, Javier Ceppi revealed one Bollywood star's petulant behaviour and antics when Spanish legend Puyol came to Mumbai in the build-up to the tournament.
"I got really pissed off when we had a Bollywood star once and we had Carles Puyol, this is Carles Puyol! A World Cup winner, one of the best football defenders of all time," he said.
"The Bollywood star wanted Carlos Puyol to come to him and say hi! But he got pissed because Puyol didn't go and say hi! Owner of a team by the way. I got extremely angry and decided we will not have anyone from Bollywood in any of our other events. I don't care," Ceppi revealed.
Further emphasising the need for sports to stay away from Bollywood, Ceppi suggested that if the organisers ensure a sporting event is of the highest quality, they wouldn't need Bollywood to help them promote it in the first place.
"We always perceived that the real heroes and the core is football. You will not get them (fans) interested if you have some Bollywood star dancing. You may get them to watch but you will not get them interested," he stated.
