04 August,2009 03:21 PM IST | | AFP
u00a0Cricket chiefs have received a request from the country's cash-starved football body to fund the national team, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The affluent Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) could shell out a $2 million grant to prepare the national football team for the 2011 Asian Cup finals in Qatar, the Kolkata-based Telegraph said.
The All India Football Federation (AIFF) wants the money to fund its "Goal 2011" project where top 25 players will be taken away from club duties for nine months to build the national team for the tournament.
Under the project, the AIFF will pay players the fees they earn from their respective clubs for the time they remain in the national camp, the newspaper said.
"Since the football federation requires a huge amount of money to make this project a success, the BCCI may help it at the request of the AIFF acting president Praful Patel," the paper quoted unnamed sources as saying.
Patel, the federal aviation minister, belongs to the Nationalist Congress Party, which is headed by International Cricket Council vice-president and former BCCI chief Sharad Pawar.
BCCI officials declined to comment on the report, saying any decision in this regard can only be taken by the body's working committee.
The BCCI, the richest sports body in the country, which earned around $222 million in fiscal 2007-2008, has already set aside a consolidated fund of $11 million for the promotion of other sports.
