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FIFA urges India to look beyond cricket

FIFA president Sepp Blatter urged cricket-mad India to embrace football and lift the sport's infrastructure in order to compete with other nations in the region.
"We are here not to fight against an established sport," Blatter told reporters on his first official visit to India, during which he will also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"I admire the game called cricket and I don't want to change the most established sport in your country now," he said.

"But I always campaign for football because in this game there is no difference between caste, culture and creed, or rich and poor. It is the fascination of this game that attracts people all over the world."

Blatter said FIFA had special plans to improve football in India, who are currently ranked 165th in the world and 34th in Asia in the sport.

But he urged the country's football administrators to work harder to match world standards.

"The Indian dream of reaching top international levels can be realised through the work done by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) with support from the government and corporate houses," he said.

"But it is only if you help yourself that heaven will help you. As Confucius said: 'If your brother asks for a fish, don't give him the same, instead teach him how to catch it'."

Blatter said football's future lay in Asia, since Europe was "saturated for foreign players and coaches."

"Good coaches will come to India if a good technical and administrative infrastructure is in place," he said.

Blatter also dismissed India's chances of hosting a World Cup in the near future.

"I wonder when India will have the infrastructure to host even age-group tournaments, let alone the World Cup," he said.

"The time to start is now. I want to wake up the sleeping giant that is India."

Asian Football Confederation chief Mohammed bin Hammam of Qatar, who is accompanying Blatter on the three-day trip, was highly critical of the AIFF which is headed by federal minister Priyaranjan Das Munshi.

"With the existing structure, don't think of progress even in the next 100 years," Hammam said.

Bhaichung Bhutia, the only Indian to play professional football in England - he spent three years with third-division Bury - blamed a lack of planning for the current state of the sport.

"We have no infrastructure at all at the grassroots level," he said recently. "There is no system in this country to encourage young boys to play football. There is no professionalism."