The ISL is not enough: Ceppi calls for higher enthusiasm from Goa fans ahead of U-17 World Cup
THE LUKEWARM RESPONSE that I-League clubs have been receiving from the fans in Goa has not escaped the attention of the organizers of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, and it has Javier Ceppi, the tournament director, worried a bit.
The Fatorda Stadium is one of the venues that will host matches during the U-17 World Cup 2017 that will be held in India. But in Indian domestic football the arena has seen contradictory response by the football fans.
While the ISL matches held here see large crowd as the local population comes out in droves to support the FC Goa franchise, during I-League, when the ground hosts the home matches of Sporting Clube de Goa, the stadium is nearly empty without fail.
The matches of Salgaocar FC, held at the Tilak Maidan, see a crowd slightly larger than Fatorda but still insignificant compared to the scale one desires for a top division football match.
Much of it has to do with the wildly different marketing and event management systems that I-League and ISL have, and Ceppi is not happy with the scenario at all. In a media interaction in Goa after the FIFA delegation inspected the stadium, he said,
"Having 500 people watching the I-League matches doesn't show too much of willingness from Goa to be honest. Goans need to show up not only for ISL to watch FC Goa but also for their I-League teams. That's a very large component to it. Also for the AFC U-16 in India will be playing here. We expect nothing but full stadium. That is a show of willingness by the population of Goa... the U-17 World Cup will be the best football that India will ever see on their land by far and beyond. Best than anything that has ever been played here."
Hosting the U-17 World Cup is being heralded as a pivotal moment in Indian football history as this is the first time an Indian team will take part in a football tournament of this level. AIFF and FIFA are hopeful of making football a pan-Indian household topic with this event. And the quality of the crowd in the arena will likely have a huge impact on how the tournament is perceived by the general populace.
