The Hindu : Sport / Football : Bharti-Airtel FA may come up in TN

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Wednesday, Mar 25, 2009
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Bharti-Airtel FA may come up in TN

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Government is viewing with interest the possibility of getting the Bharti-Airtel Football Academy, a Rs.100 crore World-class project. An indication of this came up in the Executive Committee Meeting of the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT) held on Monday under the chairmanship of the Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, T.P.M. Mohideen Khan.

It is understood that the meeting, in principle, approved the project, and it is now left to the Member-Secretary of the SDAT, Sudip Jain, to make a comprehensive study and place the proposal before the Government. The feeling is one of welcoming Airtel and giving it a go-ahead signal.

This fresh development was the kind of response that the sponsor Bharti Enterprises had looked forward to when the project, a joint venture with the All India Football Federation, was first planned in Goa, but it failed to take off.

The Government there was unable to get the 75-acre land required for the academy despite the sponsor’s long wait. Subsequently, Airtel announced its withdrawal.

With stipulated conditions for the academy favourable in Tamil Nadu and the Government also keen, there is hope that Airtel will not look beyond the State for setting up this prestigious academy which will have a tie-up with Manchester United.

Aside from the Sports Minister and the Member-Secretary, the meeting was attended by among others, the Chief Secretary, K.S. Sripathi, Principal Secretary, Sports and Youth Welfare, R. Christodas Gandhi, and SDAT Vice-Presidents B. Sivanthi Adityan and Kumaraswamy.

In a separate meeting later, the Technical committee Chairman of the AIFF, C.R. Visswanathan, held discussions with the Member-Secretary on the subject.

It was Mr. Visswanathan who had given a hint on the chances of the project coming to the State once he had come to know that Airtel was backing out of Goa. About his meeting, he said, “it was very positive.”

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