FIFA President Sepp Blatter has strongly supported India's initiative to host the 2017 under-17 World Cup.
He said the under-17 World Cup would give India the boost to develop football in the right manner. “I look positively at the under-17 World Cup. It will fit in totally into the development of grass roots football,” he said at a press conference here on Friday.
“I take this initiative in my luggage and I hope it will be received well in FIFA. I cannot decide on it as there are 24 members of the FIFA executive committee which takes the decision,” said Blatter. “This means India will have to prepare its under-17 team to match expectations,” said Blatter, who was here after visiting Nepal and Bangladesh.
The All India Football Federation President Praful Patel said India would “seriously” bid for the event. “Our mission and objective will be to see our bid going through,” he said. He was optimist that the country would be able to raise a formidable team for the competition.
Blatter had, on his last visit in 2007, described India as “sleeping giant.” Underlining the importance of the second-largest populated country in the world, the FIFA president on Friday said: “The giant is not any longer sleeping and trying to show that it has woken up.”
Blatter, in his 14th year as FIFA president, said he would not leave the post until he saw football get established in India.”
On India's desire to host the World club championship, Blatter said it could be held in Asia but there would be competition from other countries also. — Principal Correspondent
