Mumbai footballers have reason to cheer on two counts with the Western Indian Football Association winning a court battle to build a top class stadium at the Cooperage ground, and another turf at Bandra.
“Today is a ‘Red Letter’ day for Mumbai football. The PIL filed against the development of the Cooperage football ground was dismissed by the Mumbai High Court. Now, Mumbai can look forward to returning back to its past glory,” said Mumbai District Football Association president Austin Countinho, at a function here last night.
“And when the Bandra ground is ready to play football, I believe that we can produce more football players,” he added.
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MDFA secretary Souter Vaz, who is also the general secretary of the state body WIFA, was also confident that Mumbai football would get bigger with the latest developments.
“By obtaining a ground in the western suburbs it would certainly see football grow in the city,” said Vaz.
MDFA felicitated the Mumbai under-19 boys football team, which emerged champions in the recently concluded Maharashtra state inter-district football tournament, held in Kalyan recently.
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“You should now dream of playing for some I-league clubs and also the Maharashtra senior team before making it to the Indian side”, Coutinho told the young footballers.
Municipal Councilor Ashish Shelar, who was recently appointed Chairman of MDFA, felicitated the young footballers, by presenting each member of the team with a gift voucher and a bouquet of flowers.