U-17 World Cup will accelerate Indian football’s commercialization – AIFF vice president Subrata Dutta

Sportskeeda discussed the benefits Indian football will get by hosting the 2017 under-17 World Cup but to get a better picture we caught up with AIFF vice president Subrata Dutta.

Talking about the roadmap for pulling off what will be the biggest football tournament India has ever hosted, Dutta informed that six more academies will be coming up to ensure that the hosts have a competitive team in four years’ time.

“The aim is to build a competitive team for this tournament and to achieve that we will have six more academies. Details regarding the coaching staff will be sorted later but we plan to give the best possible training to the selected youngsters.

“As far as infrastructure goes, existing stadiums of the eight shortlisted cities will be inspected by FIFA and then six will be selected. After that those six venues will have the requisite refurbishment and also have better training facilities,” Dutta told Sportskeeda on Friday.

It was learnt that the FIFA inspection of the eight cities - New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Margao, Kochi, Pune and Guwahati – will be conducted around February-March 2014.

He admitted that an improvement in infrastructure will increase India’s chances of hosting more international tournaments in the future with the 2015 Club World Cup being a huge possibility.

“Yes, there is a chance of hosting the Club World Cup in 2015 as a dress rehearsal ahead of the Under-17 World Cup. Hopefully we will get some more international tournaments also,” he said.

Dutta elucidated that the impact of hosting the U-17 World Cup will go beyond matters on the pitch.

“This could be a big turning point for Indian football because I can see more corporates and sponsors showing interest. In short, this will accelerate the commercialization of football in our country,” he concluded.