Should India bid as Under-17 World Cup hosts?

Thierry Regenass, FIFA director for Member Associations and Development Division, last week said in New Delhi, "FIFA would love to come to India. India should bid for the under-17 World Cup and that would certainly provide a huge impetus to the development of infrastructure and the game of football in India."

It was interesting to see how many people were surprised by such a statement from a top FIFA official, but it isn't the first time such a statement was made by someone from the world football governing body.

Even FIFA president Joseph Blatter has said on numerous occasions in the past that India needs to consider themselves to be hosts of a Youth World Cup and then even a full FIFA World Cup to develop their infrastructure and also the management of the beautiful game. I myself was there twice when Mr. Blatter said this and that was three years back.

Has anything happened since the first such calls? Sadly not much then the stadiums and practice facilities are still a problem within Indian football, but hopefully in the next three to five years things will change for good.

But it is a long call for India to host an international football tournament, then you not only need the infrastructure but also the skills to organise such a tournament from within besides getting all of FIFA's help.

And there lies Indian football's problem but also chance, then the will shown by FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation to come forward and help our football is there. But we from within need to do our work too for us to utilise the help which is being offered to us. This was criticized by Thierry Regenass when he said that the development of football in India is too slow and development projects become complicated.

To come to my opening question. Yes, India should consider hosting an Under-17 FIFA World Cup in 2017 or 2019, but maybe in two/three years when we know where our football and its infrastructure is heading. Therefore 2019 or maybe 2021 is more suitable to India, so we can do our home work before the world comes to visit us.