Atletico de Kolkata (ATK) team was felicitated by the West Bengal government and Kolkata Municipal Corporation for their recent Indian Super League (ISL) victory.West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee congratulated the players and promised to make a new football stadium at Rajarhat New Town and revive the old Rabindra Sarovar stadium with help of All India Football federation (AIFF). The felicitation function was held at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata. AIFF president Praful Patel was present in the programme besides star footballers from the 70's like Goutam Sarkar, Shyam Thapa, Prasanta Banerjee, Bidesh Bose, Manash Bhattacharya, Samaresh (Pintu) Chowdhury along with tennis coach Akhtar Ali.Tollywood actors Prosenjit, Dev, Parambrata Chatterjee, singer Usha Uthup and a host of state ministers were present at the programme.
Highlights of WB CM's speech:
I welcome all the delegates and guests present here today. We are missing Sourav today.
My best wishes to the youth and sports lovers in Bengal.
We convey our best wishes to all the eight teams and organisers of ISL. We won the battle but they played well.
I am happy to announce we are ready to handover Rabindra Sarovar to AIFF. We have beautified the area around Rabindra Sarovar.
Let us prepare the infrastructure for the World Cup Under 17 Tournament from now.
We are ready to give land in Rajarhat to build a football stadium of international standards.
It is my dream to see World Cup Football being held in Kolkata.
Sob khelar sera, Banglar ei football. We have to groom budding sportspersons.
We convey our best wishes to those who are trying to popularise football at grassroots level.
We love Kolkata. We are proud of you Team Kolkata. Thank you so much.
This victory will inspire many youngsters to play football.
Wish you all Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
WB CM felicitates Atletico de Kolkata, Champions of #ISL tournament pic.twitter.com/e5UcnwHuxE
— AITC (@AITCofficial) December 24, 2014
#Atletico de #Kolkata honoured pic.twitter.com/K7xlgrkPdg
— Press Release Watch (@PrReleaseWatch) December 24, 2014
Highlights of WB CM's speech:
I welcome all the delegates and guests present here today. We are missing Sourav today.
My best wishes to the youth and sports lovers in Bengal.
We convey our best wishes to all the eight teams and organisers of ISL. We won the battle but they played well.
I am happy to announce we are ready to handover Rabindra Sarovar to AIFF. We have beautified the area around Rabindra Sarovar.
Let us prepare the infrastructure for the World Cup Under 17 Tournament from now.
We are ready to give land in Rajarhat to build a football stadium of international standards.
It is my dream to see World Cup Football being held in Kolkata.
Sob khelar sera, Banglar ei football. We have to groom budding sportspersons.
We convey our best wishes to those who are trying to popularise football at grassroots level.
We love Kolkata. We are proud of you Team Kolkata. Thank you so much.
This victory will inspire many youngsters to play football.
Wish you all Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
