Argentina football team to visit Kerala in March, says sports minister V Abdurahiman

Kozhikode: Sports minister V Abdurahiman said Lionel Messi-led Argentina national football team would visit Kerala in March next year.Inaugurating sports department's state-level Vikasana Sadas as part of Vision 2031 initiative, the minister said he received an email from Argentine Football Association (AFA) in this regard two days ago.The minister mentioned that the reason the Argentina team could not visit Kerala in Nov was the lack of a FIFA-approved stadium in state. He added that govt expects the Kaloor stadium to receive FIFA approval within 15 days."We have to hold another round of talks before confirming the dates and we are looking forward to a joint announcement. Just because the dates of the tour have been changed, it is not proper to blame the people who took the initiative to organise the event," he said.Abdurahiman stated that some concessions will have to be given to the sponsor who invested money to conduct the event.The Argentina team was scheduled to play in Kochi on Nov 17. However, the sponsor Reporter Broadcasting Company, recently announced that the match was postponed and will be conducted in FIFA's next window for international matches.Highlighting Kerala's rapid progress in the sports sector over the past nine years, the minister said 385 sports facilities and stadiums have been constructed during this period. "We have already launched a project to build quality playgrounds in every panchayat," Abdurahiman added.He noted that Kerala is the first state to include sports in the school curriculum from Classes I to X, the first to form sports councils at the local self govt level and the first to host a state-level sports summit and college sports league, the minister said.District collector V R Vinod presided over the function.