Maken eager to take football back to its golden era

Sports Minister Ajay Maken said he wants to take football back to its golden era -- the 1950s and 60s.

New Delhi: Advocating the need to explore the potential of football in the country and develop it all

over again, Sports Minister Ajay Maken said he wants to take the game back to its golden era -- the 1950s and 60s. During a function to felicitate the members of the Indian football team that took part in 1960 Rome Olympics, Maken said to bring back the golden era of football, the current bunch of players must try to emulate the former greats. "When we are not doing well in football at present, we must take inspiration from the golden era and emulate them to take the game forward and make a mark in the future," Maken said at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here. The members of the 1960 team -- captain P K Banerjee, Chunni Goswami, Tulsidas Balaram, S Narayanan, O Chandrashekhar, Fortunata A Franco, S S Hakim, S H Hamid, Arun Lal Ghosh, Simon Sunder Raj and the wives of late Peter Thanga Raj and D Kannan -- were presented with a silver plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs 1.5 lakh each on the occasion. Indian footballers had put up an impressive performance in 1960 Rome Olympics by creating scare among power houses of European football. They drew 1-1 with France and lost 1-2 to Hungary to take the world by surprise. Maken also stressed on the importance of initiatives taken by his predecessor M S Gill, who was also present on the occasion, for the promotion of football in the country. "The initiative taken by Dr Gill in this direction will be carried forward," he assured. Maken said the fact that football was included in the "Priority Category" from "Other Category" and an amount of about Rs 8 crore was given for promotion of the game during Gill`s tenure was a great start. He also added that there was a need to focus on those games for promotion and Government funding which are not getting corporate sponsorship. Speaking on the occasion, Gill said there is an urgent need for promoting the game of masses, like football in the country. "Efforts should be made to take football to the greater heights," the former Sports Minister said. Meanwhile, Maken once again emphasised that in order to well in any particular sport, there is an urgent need to ensure transparency in all sports federations. The minister also expressed the government`s resolve to legislate Sports Law for bringing transparency in the administration of the sports federations. "There must be transparency good governance in sports federations of the country." PTI