India to bid for 2017 – 18 FIFA World Cup

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As Indian Super League (ISL) is creating a mass appeal amongst the football fans of India, All India Football Federation (AIFF) is expanding its strategies to make Indian Football more prominent on a global platform. An ambitious AIFF is hoping India to host the most dreamt FIFA Club World Cup in 2017 – 18. In a recent visit to India, FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke said that FIFA Executive Committee will decide upon the FIFA Club World Cup of 2017-18. The committee meeting will be taking place in Morocco in the month of December.

India is presently all geared up to host the U-17 FIFA World Cup which is about to commence in less than three years in 2017. AIFF is also tightening its seat belt and boosting Indian Football on an international level as it bid for hosting the prestigious Under – 20 World Cup. AIFF President Praful Patel seems to be highly optimistic on the whole schedule and the planning of the organisation as he emphasised saying, “We will bid for U-20 World Cup. Initial steps have already been taken, besides we will also bid for 2017-18 Club World Cup.”

Jerome Valcke is charmed by the efforts that AIFF is putting for Indian Football to gain a global recognition and so he expressed his contentment over the progress made by India and AIFF, with Praful Patel contributions, in their objective to bring in U-17 World Cup, slated in 2017. Valcke added, “I am not seriously concerned about the organisational progress in U-17 World Cup will be the cherry in the cake for the business partners.” However, FIFA will also put forward a message of caution for the football fraternity that only a good show in the U-17 World Cup will ensure  the ‘sleeping giant’ getting the coveted U-20 World Cup.

Valcke further insisted that if India is successful in fetching the U-17 tournament, then there are possibilities that the country may also get the U-20 World Cup. But a lot more will depend on the quality of the U-17 football team. FIFA bidding process is an open system. India will surely need a very strong bid to bag the U-20 World Cup as it is much more professional event than that of the U-17 edition and will be have larger fan base all over the world as some of the most potential football stars emerge out of the event.

Valcke has not given much importance to the factor of stadiums as he thinks that it is important that the finale is staged in a bigger stadium. Otherwise, less crowded stadiums cannot be good news for the players and television viewership. Valcke signed off saying, “It would make sense that stadiums for U-17 World Cup should be about 20,000 to 30,000. But we are not pushing for huge stadium, we have never been. The final though can be staged in bigger stadium.”

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