'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
When the house is not in order, why is the All India Football Federation (AIFF) so keen to host the U-17 World Cup? After years and years of neglect, the venues aren’t great enough to host a top international event. Every city wants to become one of the host cities, but none has quality infrastructure. The grounds and venues have remained the same since the time I’ve been into football writing in the early 90s, or probably even before.
The comments from Javier Ceppi, the 2017 Under-17 World Cup tournament director, sums up the pathetic conditions of our own venues and still we have dreams of becoming proud hosts.
Ceppi had said that out of the 60 to 70 training sites, none complies with FIFA standards. The assessment of the ground realities is a strong message — we’re not fit to stage a tournament of such magnitude. Are we going to be a laughing stock for the international audience? We had a similar experience with infrastructure and corruption before the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010.
The FIFA official had earlier worked as Executive Director of the 2015 Under-17 World Cup in Chile and had also played a key role in the Abu Dhabi edition in 2013.
The melodrama that is Indian football
Lack of proper drainage, unclean and unplanned sitting arrangement will be a big slap on the AIFF’s face, who went gaga after they won the bid two years ago. Even the training pitches used by the Indian Super League teams are not up to the mark.
Meanwhile, last week, the AIFF entered into yet another partnership with the German Football Federation (DFB) and a week before last the Japan Football Association. To me, such deals are nothing but dramas. Such kind of agreements have had happened in the past many times to develop ‘grassroot’ football. Such tie-ups are just stupid episodes of the melodrama called Indian football, meant to garner some media attention.
If one consider the results of all the age group teams at the Asian level in recent years, such deals are just eyewashes. For how long will the AIFF sell such stale ideas and fool everyone?
Money changes hands, people remain happy. Those who do the real hard work don’t believe in stunts. Infusing the Japanese or German knowledge into our moribund structure is something like that of a dud student whose parents would want to make him a doctor or an engineer without actually motivating their kid to focus on basic studies.
