Sports Minister does the honours at unveiling function after Chief Minister’s no-show
MARGAO
The football-loving Salcete Taluka accorded a lukewarm welcome to the FIFA Under 17 World Cup Trophy at Nehru Stadium, Fatorda on Friday evening where the function for unveiling the trophy was delayed by about one and half hour due to a no-show by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who was the chief guest.
Sports Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar did the honours of unveiling the trophy in the absence of the Chief Minister who could not make it to the function due to an urgent meeting with Information & Broadcasting Minster Smriti Irani.
Flanked by SAG Director, VM Prabhudessai, Tony Cabral of AIFF and SAG chief engineer Jayant Chimulkar, the Sports Minister appealed to football fans in the state to turn up in big numbers for the mega event.
"We want football fans to support the tournament. It's a mega tournament and teams like Germany, Niger, Iran, Brazil, Guniea and Costa Rica will be in action.They play an entertaining brand of soccer," said the sports minister.
Meanwhile, Ajgaonkar claimed Fatorda is ready to host the FIFA World Cup matches with infrastructure in place at Nehru Stadium. He said this after inspecting the works at stadium while expressing the satisfaction over the arrangements made for the conduct of matches.
"The U-17 World Cup will surely help the game grow in the State because the whole world is watching it. More significantly, the Goan players will benefit from the tournament," said Ajgaonkar, thanking FIFA and PM Narendra Modi for allotting the group matches to Goa and releasing funds for refurbishment of stadium.
