Fifa president Gianni Infantino, during his day-long visit to Bangladesh, suggested that he believes football is the most popular sport in the country and not cricket.
The 49-year old chief of the world football governing body marked that the level of competition in the global sport is of a higher standard in comparison to cricket, while expressing his faith on Bangladesh’s potential.
While answering questions at a press conference during his Asia’s Goodwill Tour Thursday, Infantino said, “I don’t agree that cricket is the most popular sport in this country. How many people understand cricket? Football is very easy to understand. Football is worldwide, football is the world, football is in heartbeats. Cricket has certain success in Bangladesh and only a few countries - 12 or 11 play cricket. So when you are one of the few, you can easily be at the top. It is much more difficult in football and here comes the challenge.”
“In Bangladesh, you have a fighting spirit so you are competitors as well. We have one champion - France now, but that doesn’t mean that other 210 countries are bad. That means the other 210 countries want to be champions in any category and age, in men’s and women’s football. With the passion that I have seen here after Bangladesh’s game against India, Bangladesh will combat on the international scene at the highest level and, cricket has no chance,” opined the Swiss-Italian Infantino.
The Fifa head left the country for Laos Thursday afternoon, hours after arriving in the country.
