Corporates urged to back FIFA U-17 World Cup in India
LE FLOC’H ALSO HOPED THAT THE U17 WORLD CUP WOULD HELP MAKE FOOTBALL POPULAR BEYOND A FEW REGIONS IN THE COUNTRY THE OTHER SWISS
With the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup a little over six months away, India is gearing up to host what will be the biggest ever international football event on its soil. The tournament starts from October 6, with the final on October 28.
Philippe Le Floc’h, who was appointed as the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of FIFA in September last year, was in New Delhi on Thursday as part of an event held to announce Hero Motocorp as ‘National Supporter’ of the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
In an exclusive chat with Hindustan Times later in the day, the Frenchman called on Indian companies to be part of the mega event. “The benefits of being associated with the FIFA U-17 World Cup are twofold. Firstly, you have the prestige of being associated with a World Cup, the visibility from which will be huge. Secondly, you are also helping football develop in India by supporting youth development in the sport. We hope that the U-17 World Cup will be a gamechanger for India. Anything that Indian companies can do to support that will be a positive for them,” Le Floc’h said.
The CCO also hoped that the U-17 World Cup would help in making football popular beyond a few regions in the country.
“Football is a developing sport in India. It is popular in pockets, in Northeast, Goa, Bengal, etc. I think having the FIFA U-17 World Cup here will be good for the growth of the sport. You have the Mission XI Million initiative, which should help in developing the sport at the grassroot level and will hopefully put football in a different perspective for people here,” he added.
While there has been considerable interest among Indian companies for the upcoming event, FIFA doesn’t yet have any brand from the country as an affiliate for its global events. Le Floc’h is hopeful of that changing soon.
“The Indian market has matured. You have very, very competitive companies. They were initially focusing on India because your internal market is so big, but now they want to go out and explore. You can take Hero as an example; they are present in 35 countries around the world and have ambitions to go to more countries.
“Football is the most popular sport in the world, and FIFA is the world governing body of the sport. To join us as a global affiliate would be the perfect partnership for Indian companies looking to push their products to markets outside of India.
“When you are part of an event like the World Cup, you are already getting visibility from millions of fans. And it’s not just about one World Cup in every four years, you have major FIFA events happening every year,” he said. Stan Wawrinka raised his game on the big points and dominated the climactic third-set tiebreaker to beat Dominic Thiem 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(2) on Thursday and reach the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.
Third seed Wawrinka, who six months ago beat Novak Djokovic to win the US Open, won a gripping slugfest against the 23-yearold Austrian, hammering home five third-set aces including one to reach quadruple match point in the tiebreak. “The level was really high tonight,” Wawrinka, 31, said in an on-court interview. “I’m really happy the way I was playing, the way I found a way to win it.”
Thiem kept pace with the Swiss on the strength of his booming forehand, but by the end of the two hour 31 minute match, he lost the range on his favoured shot, belting three forehands well long to lose his way in the third-set decider. “The player who was the most aggressive, was dictating, was winning most of