{"id":10045,"date":"2012-09-05T12:18:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T12:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/i-want-to-see-football-as-indias-number\/"},"modified":"2018-06-04T17:00:39","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T17:00:39","slug":"i-want-to-see-football-as-indias-number","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/i-want-to-see-football-as-indias-number\/","title":{"rendered":"I want to see football as India\u2019s number one sport: Valcke"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Even FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke feels that FIFA Rankings do not always reflect a team\u2019s quality. The likes of Syed Rahim Nabi and Sunil Chhetri have been maintaining after the Nehru Cup treble that India are a much better side than what the Rankings project. It is just that they need to play more matches against top teams on FIFA dates.<\/p>\n
\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
FIFA Secretary General Mr. Jerome Valcke (left) with AIFF President Mr. Praful Patel <\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\nOn Wednesday at a media gathering in Le Meridian, Valcke accompanied by All India Football Association (AIFF) President Praful Patel, reiterated it once again.<\/p>\n

\u201cFIFA Rankings are very complicated. To climb the ladder in the Rankings you need to play on FIFA dates and with competitive sides. Otherwise your good show won\u2019t reflect,\u201d said the 51-year old Frenchman after President Patel highlighted Nabi\u2019s statement that India are a much better side that what the Rankings reflect.<\/p>\n

Valcke added: \u201cOur main objective is to develop domestic football and bring it to the International level. People would take interest in watching Indian Domestic League and not only the English Premier League and the La Liga and so on. We want to improve the infrastructure as well. India is a large market and I cannot believe 1.2 billion people only play just cricket!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the reason we want the U-17 World Cup in 2017 to take place in India. We aim to host World Cups in countries where football development is needed. India stays out primary area of focus. We have our Developmental Office in India,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat proves how serious we are about the 10-year project with India from 2012 to 2022. In between we have the 2017 World Cup bid and India\u2019s aim to qualify for the “2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.\u201d<\/p>\n

AIFF President Patel stressed that Valcke\u2019s visit stays a very significant one. \u201cWe have been fortunate enough to have President Blatter and now Mr. Valcke visiting India in the same year. It depicts FIFA\u2019s interest in developing football in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIndian football is poised for a big leap after days of hibernation. We are ready to shake off our stupor and FIFA is supporting us in our cause. They are going out of their way to see India emerge as a strong Footballing Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He further maintained: \u201cWe have to start early if we want to grow as a Footballing Nation and develop the grassroots. We need to work on the pyramid and that stays the main objective of the Federation. Unless we have players being nurtured from the age of 12-13 we won\u2019t grow.\u201d \u201cWe have a 10-year Master Plan called Lakshya and our aim is to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patel and Valcke also signed an agreement on this cause. Complementing Patel\u2019s statement, Valcke felt \u201cIndia stay an integral part in Asia\u2019s development.\u201d \u201cIndia has to be one of the centre point of Asia to develop football,\u201d he opined. \u201cThere is no football without grassroot programme,\u201d he reiterated. \u201cThe U-17 World Cup is the perfect milestone to succeed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patel signed of on a smiling note. \u201cOur request to FIFA would be to provide us with a dozen more artificial turfs. FIFA has provided us with eight of them previously during the \u2018Win in India in India\u2019 project. Financial help is also solicited.\u201d Sitting next, Valcke smiled. \u201cIt would be a pleasure to serve Indian football. You know I cannot want to see football as the number one sport in the country. Sorry cricket!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke feels that FIFA Rankings do not always reflect a team\u2019s quality. The likes of Syed Rahim Nabi and Sunil Chhetri have been maintaining after the Nehru Cup treble that India are a much better side than what the Rankings project. It is just that they need to play more matches against top teams on FIFA dates. FIFA Secretary General Mr. Jerome Valcke (left) with AIFF President Mr. Praful Patel  On Wednesday at a media gathering in Le Meridian, Valcke accompanied by All India Football Association (AIFF) President Praful Patel, reiterated it once again. \u201cFIFA <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[571,169,166],"class_list":["post-10045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-update","tag-aiff","tag-football","tag-sports","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10045"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41173,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10045\/revisions\/41173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}