Footballs distributed among educational institutes, clubs

Kolkata: Youth Services and Sports department and Kolkata Police distributed footballs among educational institutions and clubs in Kolkata to promote the FIFA Under-17 Football World Cup on Monday.

Representatives of around 2,277 schools, colleges, high madrasas, colleges, universities and local clubs were present at Nazrul Manch where 10,455 footballs were distributed among them.

Each university got 15 footballs while the rest received five footballs each.

Aroop Biswas, the state Youth Services and Sports minister, Rajeev Kumar, Commissioner of Kolkata Police and many former footballers were present in the programme.

It may be mentioned that before Durga Puja, the state government had decided to distribute footballs among educational insititutions and local clubs, who have received the grant.

"Joyee" footballs are being manufactured by Refugee Handicrafts under the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises and Textiles have been distributed and there is logo of the FIFA Under-17 Football World Cup on them too.

According to an official of the state Youth Services and Sports department, there are around 12,000 such clubs in the state that received grants to promote sports and cultural activities. So, total 60,000 footballs are getting distributed on the eve of the Under-17 World Cup all across the state among clubs, educational institutions and police lines.

Biswas said: "The project to distribute footballs has been inspired by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. It will encourage children to play the game and our endeavour is to bring up more children from different parts of the state who can participate in international events like the ongoing World Cup."

Stating the steps to distribute footballs as a unique one, Kumar said that children should take more and more interest in games like football.

Former footballers have also lauded the move of the state government terming it as a "historic step" to bring back Bengal's football in its old form.