India a football country now: Fifa

Kolkata: “India is a football country now,” Fifa president Giani Infantino declared after arriving here to chair the Fifa Council meeting on Friday and attend the U-17 World Cup final.

Asked about the successful organisation of the U-17 World Cup, the 47-year-old said: “Thank you very much, all Indians. That’s most important. It’s a great pleasure to be here.”

According to sources, there could be discussions on India’s bid at the council for the U-20 World Cup in 2019, chances of which have brightened after the success of the U-17 World Cup which is all set to topple 1985 China as the best attended event in the tournament’s history.

“While that appears to be the advantage, a drawback is that the Fifa has never allowed back-to-back World Cup events to one country. But with the Council meeting here, it can be ratified,” an official with the local organising committee said.

On Friday, officials will also discuss implementation of the contentious video assistant referee technology at the Russia World Cup 2018 with the Fifa president keen on it.

Critics, however, said there’s not nearly enough proof that the process works properly and argue Infantino is rushing into technology prematurely.

The system can only be used for goals, penalty decisions, direct red cards and cases of mistaken identity.

‘India has delivered successful World Cup’
In Delhi, Fifa head of competitions Jaime Yarza said the infrastructure provided was world-class and all the teams were happy with the organisation.

“The figures speak of themselves, it is going to be the most attended U-17 World Cup. On the field, the matches were of high quality, played in high speed and technically also it was of high class. It has been a fantastic tournament and India has delivered it.

“We want to commend all the six host venues for the successful hosting of the tournament. All the teams are happy and the coaches told us that training sites were of top level. They did not expect such a good quality training pitches. All the teams are satisfied regarding accommodation, food and transportation,” he added.