Visakhapatnam: At a time when the FIFA U-17 World Cup fever has gripped the nation, not having a single playground fit to play football in major cities and other locations in Andhra Pradesh is a big letdown for soccer fans. Though members of the football association and players have requested the government to develop playgrounds for football, their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. For the first time, six cities in India host the 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup matches from October 6 to 28. Not a single city from Andhra Pradesh has got the chance to host a match due to poor infrastructure in the state.
Sources said that Andhra Pradesh has over 600 playgrounds developed by the ministry of youth affairs and sports between 2008 and 2014. However, due to poor maintenance, lack of equipment and non-availability of coaches, almost 90 per cent of them have turned into mini dumping yards. President of AP Football Association Kosaraju Gopalakrishna said that there was not a single stadium in Vizag, Vijayawada, Tirupati or Kurnool fit to play football and organise national level football events.
If the government revamps some stadia in the state by spending some good amount, AP would have been able to host the football events while also producing some talented soccer players, he added. Vizag city, that has in the past, produced some talented football players, lost its standing in the football field. Sources said that the Railway Stadium in Vizag was the most suitable one for football. It has, however, been developed for the cricket.
There still is a lot of passion for football in Vizag and the city has been seeing a renewed interest in soccer where there are more than 20 football clubs in the city. But, there were no good playgrounds for the game. The Visakhapatnam Dist-rict Football Association (VDFA) has set up a big LED screen at RK Beach area in Vizag city to give a chance to beach visitors to watch the FIFA U-17 world cup matches.
M. Rakesh Kumar, a soccer fan, said that though AP government has been claiming that they are giving top priority for sporting infrastructure, nothing has been done so far. If AP neglected the sports sector, it will not get a chance to host any of the major sporting events in future, he added.
