Arunava about Football A look at football & the world through my eyes!
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The 2017 Durga Puja in Kolkata will be a special one then it will be held just days ahead of the first-ever FIFA World Cup tournament to played on India soil, the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup. It is being hosted in the country from October 6 to 28 with the Saltlake Stadium in Kolkata set to host the final on October 28.
This fact has meant that the Government of West Bengal has decided to dedicate the 2017 Durga Puja celebrations to the beautiful game, then football is as much a part of the Bengali DNA like the Durga Puja festivities, the traditional Bengali Adda (gatherings to chit-chat), drinking tea, enjoying good food and much more.
Many in India and around the world actually do not know that football has been around in India since the 1870s, much before it made its entry to continental Europe. India’s oldest football tournament, the Durand Cup was founded in 1888 and is still played in New Delhi as the world’s third oldest football tournament after the English and Scottish FA Cup’s.
In Kolkata in 1911, Asia’s oldest football club in Mohun Bagan AC scored a historic first IFA Shield tournament triumph by beating for the first time an English army side in the East Yorkshire Regiment, a fact which has become a part of the Indian independence struggle.
Even to this day, one of the world’s most fierce football derbies takes place in Kolkata when Mohun Bagan AC take on their archrivals East Bengal Club. A traditional football derby close to the heart of the Bengalis.
But at the international level, India has had limited success many decades ago. It is a known fact that India has never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, only a turned down invitation to the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. But India has been runners-up of the 1964 AFC Asian Cup, finished fourth at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and the biggest success has been the 1951 and 1962 Asian Games football tournament gold medals.
Now a new generation of footballers takes over as the India Under-17 boys will hope to make a mark on the football world as they face the United States of America, Columbia and Ghana in a tough Group A of the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi.
Not only that but it will be across the six hosting cities of New Delhi, Navi Mumbai, Goa, Kochi, Kolkata and Guwahati that India looks forward in hosting the 24 participating nations in what will be a festival of football.
My hope that the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup will bring Indian football to the forefront of Asia and world football, then the sport has a massive potential across India, in a young and vibrant country.
