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Goa Sudharop to Release Goan Seniors E-book
May 8, 2007 at 5:30pm at Hotel Mandovi, Panaji, Goa
www.goasudharop.org
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I have a dream - of popularizing football in India: Kalam
By Sri Krishna, Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, May 4 (IANS) It was a meeting that International Football
Federation (FIFA) President Sepp Blatter would long remember. For 45
minutes, President A P J Kalam held forth on the sport quoting
profusely from a book by French soccer star Michel Platini and his
"own dream" of popularizing the sport in India's 600,000 villages.
"I have a dream and the dream is to make football popular in the
villages of India so that more and more young people play it. For this
I want top football stars to visit the villages and meet the
children," Kalam told Blatter when the latter called on him last month
during his India visit.
Impressed by what Kalam said, Blatter said the federation plans to
send three top footballers to India next year. They are Franz
Beckenbaur, Beckham and Platini who would tour rural areas interacting
with children, a senior official of All India Football Federation
(AIFF) said.
Kalam, who is very fond of children, said Indian kids in rural areas
would be "inspired" to take up this game when they are able to meet
top footballers of the world.
"They will see them, meet them and thus get inspiration from them to
take up the game," he reportedly told Blatter.
The FIFA president commented: "He is a man of science and he knows so
much about the game."
Blatter also had a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and had
apprised him of the plans of FIFA for development of football, the
world's most popular sport.
Blatter, who arrived in Kolkata on April 15 on his maiden visit to
India, was given a red carpet welcome in the soccer-mad city.
The All India Football Federation (AIFF), headed by Information and
Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmusi, spent about Rs.5 million
on the visit of Blatter and his entourage comprising around 100
officials.
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CONVENTION OF THE GOAN DIASPORA FROM GOA INTO THE WORLD
Lisbon, Portugal June 15-17, 2007 Details at:
http://www.goacom.org/casa-de-goa/noticias.html
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