KOLKATA: Union sports minister
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore on Saturday said India must work hard towards bringing back the lost glory of football.
"We need to bring up the Indian football and develop in a lot of other sports," the Olympics silver medallist said on the sidelines of the
FIFA U-17 World Cup
final.
The sports minister earlier met Indian football legend
PK Banerjee
and inaugurated a dressing room in his name at the Sports Authority of India Eastern Centre.
"A lot of spectators today might not know that we won gold medal in football in Asian Games and the captain of that team was from Bengal," he said about the Chuni Goswami-led Asian Games triumph in 1962.
"We were once at the 14th position at the Olympics. So, these are important moments for us."
Impressed with the facilities at the
Salt Lake Stadium
, he said: "The infrastructure here is good. I want the facilities to be regularly used by the players. If the infrastructure remain unused then what is the point of maintaining it? Therefore, we need more players to come up."
"The infrastructure here is good. I want the facilities to be regularly used by the players. If the infrastructure remain unused then what is the point of maintaining it? Therefore, we need more players to come up," he said.