Praful Patel takes over as AIFF President

OK, first the news...

Poor Priyaranjan Dasmunshi, the multi-time Congress MP suffered a heart attack and is recuperating in a hospital in Delhi. My thoughts are with his family and I pray for his fast recovery. Praful Patel, ex-vicepresident and the current acting-president has taken over the responsibility of taking 'care' of football in India.

Now the issue to be discussed.

Priyaranjan Dasmunshi presided over All India Football Federation as President since 1988. That is before none of the under-19 footballers were born. Although, I feel bad for his family concerning his health, but what did he achieve in the past two decades on the helm of affairs of AIFF? Did he not feel ashamed in any way in his tenure for sad state of the sport? My take is if he had really loved the sport he would have quit long ago.

A change in guard is always a refreshing breather. But Praful Patel has presided as acting President and was Vice-president since long enough. Praful Patel for the sake of football in India should come out with his 'master plan' to make the popular sport a successful venture in India.

Give a guy a roll of paper and some space and few moments alone. Next thing you would see that
he has rolled the paper into a ball and is kicking it and dodging imaginary players and is smiling about kicking the ball in an imaginary goal post. The sport needs no introduction or need not be popularised. What needs to be popularised is that it is being managed well enough for people to take it as a career option.

Considering the 'good work' that Praful Patel has done with Air India, one can only hope that the breather that Praful Patel brings does not turn out to be a case of bad breath.