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India has adequate infrastructure to host the U-17 World Cup – Ankur Dutta
14-Sep-2012 11:46:00 AM
The India FA vice-president suggests that winning the U-17 World Cup bid shall boost the country’s football in the long run…
Ankur Dutta, the All India Football Federation’s (AIFF) vice-president, believes that the country has “adequate” infrastructure to host the U-17 World Cup in 2017.
The statement comes in at a time when the AIFF have been embarrassed by the Federation Cup controversy where a ground was approved as a host without any one having inspected it. Later when it was inspected by one of the AIFF vice-presidents, the stamp of approval was given which later came back to haunt them as the stadium is far from ready to host the tournament.
India has expressed its willingness to host the Under-17 World Cup championship in 2017 and the world body was to finalise the venue soon, Dutta told PTI.
“Indian football will get a boost, if the U-17 World Cup would be allotted to us,” he mentioned.
"We have adequate infrastructure to host the championship (U-17 World Cup), which would also allow further scope to improve it before 2017," he said.
Dutta mentioned that the Indian FA are leaving no stone unturned in their efforts to qualify for the 2022 World Cup to be held in Qatar.
"AIFF has initiated all possible steps to promote football as we are targeting India's participation in the 2022 World Cup,” he said.
He added that for India to make it into the 2022 World Cup, it needed more international exposure and hence the U-17 World Cup at home shall benefit immensely.
"We will have to provide more international exposure to achieve the target to see India qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. AIFF's focus now was to conduct the Under-17 World Cup, if allotted, successfully."
“This (Under-17 World Cup) would provide Indian team to play in the championship as a host country along with top teams of the world and would also provide scope to further sharpen our skill to achieve the 2022 target,” Dutta observed.
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