Blatter: There can't be World Football without India!

FIFA president Joseph S. Blatter on his South Asian tour is currently in New Delhi. During the day he met President of India Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss football's future before sitting down with the AIFF top brass.

Blatter has over the last few years said again and again around the world that India is the sleeping giant of football, which he now see's to be waking-up.

"To wake up a sleeping giant you need several alarm clocks. We have set up several alarm clocks to monitor them. I am in my 30th year in FIFA and 13th year as the president. My tenure ends in 2015 but I won't leave FIFA until I see the sport established in the sub-continent of India," said Blatter.

He went on to state, "India playing a part for the development of World Football!"

AIFF president Praful Patel announced that India would be making two significant bids as far as world football is concerned. "India are staging a serious bid to host the U-17 World Cup in 2017," Praful Patel said to the media. "Apart from that, we would also bid to host the 2015 World Club Cup. Both the Tournaments would provide an excellent opportunity for our players to rub shoulders with the best of the world," the AIFF president maintained.

"I understand that there are challenges and limitations as well. But we will overcome all for the cause of the sport," Praful Patel added.

Sepp Blatter did not make any comment on the above moves of the AIFF as he diplomatically said, "FIFA stay a democratic setup. Both are positive developments no doubt. But it's upto the FIFA Executive Committee to decide."

Praful Patel added, "The two bids set a target for the AIFF and also the Government of India. We stay aware of the lack of good infrastructure at the moment. But I assure you, we will overcome all."

"The Prime Minister wants to see India as one of the premier Footballing nations. Nothing can be more inspirational for Indian football."

Patel told Blatter that he would get all the bid papers before leaving the country.

Sepp Blatter summed up the mood, "There cannot be world football without India," as the 75-year-old Swiss was accompanied by two FIFA executive committee members Zhang Zilong (Acting President of the Asian Football Confederation), and Manilal Fernando.

Is Indian Football ready for Sepp Blatter?

It is a provocative question, but it has to be asked then friends at FIFA reiterate again and again the point that the world football governing body would like to see a strong India amongst the footballing nations, first in Asia and then the world. This simply has to do with the growing market that the India economy is for FIFA and world football, but for me who supports and loves Indian football, I see no harm then football these days at the top international level is a commercial product - nothing more and nothing less.

Now FIFA president Joseph S. Blatter is back in India, nearly four years after his first visit in April 2007 to Kolkata and New Delhi. Now Mr. Blatter is not in India on a courtesy call or a simple visit to one of the 208 member nations. He is in India to see for himself where the nations stands, interact with the football authorities to get a personal feel.

Surely the 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup is something which could push development in Indian football, but a big question remains who would fund and organise/coordinate the development of necessary infrastructure - stadia, hotels, roads and airports if 24 national youth teams from around the world come to India with six cities having to host one of the groups.

India surely has shown with the 2011 Cricket World Cup and the first-ever Formula 1 race at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida that if sports on a large scale is organised privately it can succeed, the counter example is the 2010 Commonwealth Games which was organised by the government.

Mr. Blatter and FIFA will know all th above facts, so lets see if our football authorities can convince them that they are a capable lot...

VIDEO: Canada U-17 Goalkeeper scores!

England's goalkeeper woes at big tournaments continue and this time around it was Jordan Pickford at the Under-17 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. England where leading 2-1 against Canada with three minutes to go and then Pickford allowed a long range attempt from his Canadian counterpart Quillan Roberts from their half fly over him into the goal.

Quillan Roberts' thumping kick from well inside his own half was enough for a 2-2 draw and gives the Canadians their first-ever point in the history of the tournament. It is also the first-ever goal scored by a goalkeeper in any 11-A-Side FIFA competition from the action of play.

Here a link to the Video of the goal

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.