FIFA president to visit India

Kolkata, Apr 07 (UNI) In an effort to rejuvenate the moribund condition of the Indian football, FIFA president Josehp Blatter will make a three-day maiden visit to India from April 15.

He would also meet leading businessmen of the country to explore football related business oppurtunities in India.

Accompanied by AFC president Mohhamad-bin-Hammam and its vice-president Jerome Champagne, Mr Blatter would arrive here on April 15 morning to witness the National Football League match between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal.

After the match, Mr Blatter would meet former football legends and a number of international players, who represented the country in various soccer matches all over the world.

Before his departure for New Delhi next morning, the FIFA president would visit the offices of all the three major football playing clubs in the city namely- Mohan Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammaden Sporting, besides garlanding the statue of former football legend Gostha Paul.

Announcing Mr Blatter's visit to India, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, also the president of All India Football Federation, said, Mr Blatter would meet the captains of Indian industry in a specially convened meeting organised by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), where the FIFA president would deal with different aspects of international football and drawing aspects of the market dynamism.

The same evening, Mr Blatter is scheduled to call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President A P J Abdul Kalam and would pay homage to the Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat.

Later he would attend a banquet organised by All India Football Federation and Zee Sports in his honour.

The next morning Mr Blatter would inaugurate the AIFF football house in New Delhi, built with financial assistance from FIFA and would interact with the representatives of all the National Football clubs.

In the evening Mr Blatter would also deliver his keynote address at the special congress of the AIFF at Vigyan Bhavan to mark the 70th anniversary of AIFF. He would leave for Zurich the same night.

Describing his visit as historic, Mr Dasmunshi said his visit would open a new window of opportunity for Indian football, which is gearing to face the world's big wigs in soccer arena in 2014 Soccer World Cup after coming out from his present moribund conditions.

Urging the people to accord the FIFA president the warmest welcome, Mr Dasmunshi said efforts were being made to document the entire visit, considered to be the most important visit in the history of the century old Indian football.

He also said in an effort to attract maximum number of football lovers into the Saltlake stadium on the April 15 match, the AIFF had decided to substantially reduce the price of the tickets besides issuing a large number of complementary cards.

UNI