CHENNAI: India’s first ever major FIFA tournament — the U-17 World Cup — is less than an year away, but the All India Football Federation (AIFF) is already setting its eyes on another big prize — the U-20 World Cup.
While this is not the first time the AIFF has broached that topic, its president Praful Patel sparked a fresh round of debates with his comments in an interview given to the 2022 Qatar World Cup’s organising committee. “Following the tournament (U-17 World Cup), we will bid for the FIFA U-20 World Cup,” he told www.sc.qa. “We have told the FIFA Competitions Committee that we are keen to host the event at the earliest available opportunity in 2019, and this will further give a boost to our grassroots initiatives.”
While Patel’s interview, given when he travelled to Doha to attend the AFC Cup final involving Bengaluru FC, contains ambitions like qualifying for the 2022 World Cup, hosting the U-20 World Cup may not be as unrealistic. While talks have been going on within AIFF circles, no action has been taken on finalising a bid. But shift the goalposts to 2021 and it just might happen.
“We have always let the FIFA know that we are interested in hosting the U-20 World Cup. That is the next level of progression,” AIFF secretary Kushal Das told Express. “It is still at a discussion-stage and we have not finalised a bid yet. So 2019 may be a bit out of reach. But we firmly believe that we will be in the running to host the 2021 U-20 World Cup.”
Attempting to host the 2021 event may also be more realistic given that the 2017 event is in Asia (South Korea). Only once has a continent hosted the championship twice in succession, Qatar and Malaysia hosting the FIFA World Youth Championship in 1995 and 1997 respectively.
Das also confirmed that a long-mooted plan for India to host the FIFA Club World Cup was also still alive. “That is still on the table. We will need an infrastructure upgrade after the U-17 World Cup, so we are looking at what will be required.”
vishnu.prasad@newindianexpress.com