'Qatar 2022 will evoke huge interest in India' say Indian football administrators

India's football fanbase is poised for huge increase by 2022 when Qatar hosts the FIFA World Cup™, top administrators in the country have revealed.

The growth will be helped by a football awareness programme for urban children, titled Mission 11 Million, which will be launched later in 2016.

In 2017 India will also host its first ever FIFA tournament – the FIFA U-17 World Cup – and programme organisers will use Mission 11 Million to build interest and spread awareness ahead of the momentous event, which kicks off in September.

Kushal Das, the General Secretary of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), told www.sc.qa: "The idea is to get at least 11 million urban Indian kids involved in football at various levels. We are planning to get the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, to launch Mission 11 Million during the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit in Goa in October. There will be a U-17 tournament involving all five nations with all heads of state likely to attend the final when Mission 11 Million will be launched."

Das continued: "In March, the PM mentioned in his monthly radio address to the nation the need to use the FIFA U-17 World Cup to get young Indians involved in football. Subsequently, FIFA and the Sports Ministry have taken interest in Mission 11 Million and we are expanding the programme from six U-17 WC venues to about 18 Indian cities."

Das further spelt out the road map for the programme: "If the FIFA U-17 World Cup is delivered successfully in 2017, there is the thought of staging the Under-20s version in 2021, by which point Mission 11 Million would have achieved its desired objective of increased youth involvement."

Indian football gained global appeal in 2014 with the launch of the Indian Super League. The 2015 season had an average stadium attendance of 27,000, the highest for any Asian league, with women and children filling 50 percent of seats.

India's AFC-affiliated league, the I-League, has already seen a remarkable surge in interest, I-League Chief Executive Sunando Dhar explained.

"We registered a 40-percent increase in spectators this season compared to 2014-15. This was across the board for all nine clubs," he said. "The majority of new fans have been young women and kids from the urban upper middle class."

Dhar also foresees a huge demand for 2022 FIFA World Cup™ tickets from India's young urban population: "Geographically, Qatar is fairly close to India, and football here is steadily on the rise in terms of both consumption and participation.

"Many Indians travelled to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany and the 2010 edition in South Africa. I was professionally involved in arranging FIFA World Cup tours from Kolkata in 2006.

"There was a huge appetite for tickets to the Brazil and Argentina games, and for Germany's. In 2022, the demand is going to hit the roof across most Indian cities."

Dhar and Das also believe it will not just be the traditional football powers who Indian fans are queuing up to watch. They can see the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup driving much greater interest in the Indian national team.

"The U-17 national side will be 19 by 2019, when the qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup starts," said Das.

"They will form the nucleus of the national team. So urban India will be plugged into the FIFA World Cup a long time before the tournament starts in Qatar."

The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy supports various projects – in Qatar and overseas – through its Community Grant scheme. One such project benefits the recent Indian community football tournament in Qatar, a country where Indians are the single largest expatriate group.