AIFF chief Praful Patel hints at some exciting future plans for Indian football

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Mumbai, Sep 27: All India Football Federation (AIFF) President Praful Patel has claimed that his organising team is currently preparing a blueprint to develop a National Centre of Excellence to be set up in India while speaking to the press ahead of the U-17 World Cup which will be ready to kick-off in less than two weeks' time.within two weeks.

"We have not shortlisted the location but it is in an advanced stage. We are setting up a national training centre of excellence which will be the home of the Indian national team, junior and women’s team. We are wanting to build a world class centre of excellence," said Patel.

The Indian Football federation chief also claimed that they have already preliminary discussed the issue with FIFA and hinted that the Football's governing body have given a green light for the project.

"We should have a permanent facility for everything – from physical training to swimming room to classrooms to mental conditioning. We are in talks and I don’t want to go beyond that at this point. It may cost us over 100 crores INR. Hopefully we will get FIFA supporting us in this initiative as much as we will reach out to private sponsors.

It would have at least a couple of fields so that there is enough space. We want to host it in a place where there is more competitive sport available because you can’t be putting it in the backwaters. You won’t get teams to play competitive games," he stated.

"A lot of talks are at an advanced stage and it is not yet finalized. As soon as the World Cup is over, we will announce the location. We hope to commence the work as early as 2018 so that it is ready in a year and a half," he added.

In the same conference, Patel also suggested that India has formally put in an official bid to host the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2019 and now waiting for the Fifa's outcome.

The FIFA U-17 World Cup will kick off on 6 October and Colombia and Ghana will play the first match of the tournament.