Arunava about Football A look at football & the world through my eyes!
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You have read the headline properly, the above statement was made by the All India Football Federation president Praful Patel to the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar on the sidelines of the India Football Forum 2016 in New Delhi earlier this month.
Praful Patel said in the interview, “We will aspire towards qualifying for the 2022 World Cup because of the support our national team is going to receive and will need to ensure that right steps are taken towards realising this objective.”
“Indian football’s further growth will therefore be of direct long-term to Qatar football, including the successful hosting of the 2022 World Cup,” Praful Patel added.
AIFF president Praful Patel then went on to speak about the natural links between Qatar and India, also in football which was evident in the recent AFC Cup final played in Doha between Air Force Club of Iraq and India’s Bengaluru FC.
“We believe that Qatar are our natural partners in the Asian football family and the AFC Cup final has illustrated this,” he continued.
“Qatar has identified its Indian community as an important stakeholder of the 2022 World Cup and more than 5,000 Indian expats were at the stadium to cheer Bengaluru FC’s historic feat proving they are emotional stakeholders in Indian football as well.”
“Also, 500 people from Bengaluru travelled to Doha at their expense to cheer the club despite having only a few days to make travel arrangements.”
Interesting to see that the AIFF president Praful Patel thinks that as early as 2019/2020 these current India Under-16 boys will be ready to take India through the preliminary rounds of Asian qualifiers and then also potentially take us through to the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar.
I and you all would love to see that, but it is asking a lot of these youngsters…
