Sports Ministry promotes football in parliament

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports distributed footballs among Members of Parliament to promote the Mission XI Million Programme for taking the game across India in the run up to the FIFA U-17 World Cup to be hosted in October. "The FIFA U-17 World Cup is being organised in partnership with the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and in order to create football culture Mission XI Million has been initiated that aims to take football to 11 million children across India through 15000 schools and mass contact programmes," Sports Minister Vijay Goel said in a statement. "Various activities are being organised across all states to promote and popularise the three phase programme by organising workshops and festivals etc.