Date:05/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/05/stories/2008050556732000.htm

Sport - Football

Vision India’s football project officially launched

Principal Correspondent

THE LAUNCH: Kerala Sports Minister M. Vijayakumar (second from left) inaugurating Project Kerala at Kozhikode on Sunday.

KOZHIKODE: Project Kerala, a part of the Vision India programme of the Asian Football Federation, was officially inaugurated by the AFC secretary Dato Paul Mony Samuel here on Sunday.

The function was presided over by the Kerala Sports Minister, M. Vijayakumar, and was attended among others by the All India Football Federationsecretary, Alberto Colaco, and the State Sports Council president T.P. Dasan.

The project for the development of football in the State, which also includes a State Schools league featuring eight school teams each from seven districts, had kicked off here on April 1. “We will make Kerala the Sport’s Own Country,” the minister said in his speech. “The aim is to make Kerala the sporting capital of India.”

Earlier in the day, the minister, the AFC secretary and the AIFF secretary met the press.

Mony Samuel said that the AFC was happy with the progress of the scheme in Kerala.

“We chose Kerala as one of the states to implement the Vision India scheme on the advice of the AIFF,” he said.

To a question about the possibility of increasing the number of teams in the I-League, Colaco replied that a decision would be taken after a two-member committee submitted its report on Monday.

“There would be no changes in the format,” he said.