47-acre Neville D’Souza football ground into convention-cum-exhibition centre came from the MHADA.
The proposal to turn the 2.47-acre Neville D’Souza football ground into convention-cum-exhibition centre came from the MHADA. (Express Photo)The Neville D’Souza football ground in Mumbai’s Bandra, named after the first Asian player to score a hat-trick in the Asian Games, has been at the centre of a controversy ever since the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) cleared a proposal to make way for a convention-cum-exhibition centre, triggering a series of protests. The 2.47-acre Neville D’Souza football ground, currently leased to the Mumbai District Football Association (MFA), is one of Mumbai’s few land parcels reserved for football. But the recent BMC proposal for a city starved for space has raised questions on the earmarking of open land parcels for concretised development.While the convention-cum-exhibition centre proposal has the government’s approval, the MFA has approached the Bombay High Court challenging the move. Why was land reservation changed for Neville D’Souza? Under Mumbai’s Development Plan (DP) module, land parcels across the city are reserved to secure future civic infrastructure and open spaces. And their reservation status depends on the area’s population density, which the civic body then uses to construct amenities such as schools, playgrounds, crematoriums, cemeteries and fire stations. The Neville D’Souza football ground is a huge 2.47-acre ground, and the proposal to turn it into convention-cum-exhibition centre came from the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA). It has argued that the land had originally been earmarked as a Convention Complex under the Bandra Reclamation layout approved in 1983. However, the plot was redesignated as a playground as a football ground existed on the site at the time while preparation for the Development Plan (DP) 2034 model was underway. The protests Inaugurated in 2018, the Neville D’Souza Football Ground is located at Bandra Reclamation and was built to address the city’s long-standing shortage of quality football infrastructure. Since its inauguration, the ground has become a key centre for domestic football.Story continues below this ad The ground was constructed by the Mumbai Metropolitan Development Authority (MMRDA) in line with FIFA’s standards, and was opened for use the following year. With a seating capacity of 5,000, the Neville D’Souza football ground has hosted various tournaments, including the Maharashtra State Men’s Senior Football League, Mumbai Premiere League, and Nandkarni Cup. Ever since the BMC cleared the proposal, hundreds of Bandra citizens, including former national footballers, have protested on the grounds every Sunday. Congress MP Varsha Gaikwad as well as Shiv Sena (UBT) legislator Aaditya Thackeray, who is also the president of MFA, have written to civic chief Ashwini Bhide, urging the administration to change the reservation. Who does the land belong to? The lands in Bandra reclamation are owned by MHADA. Civic documents show that since 1983, the land parcel, on which the ground stands today, was originally reserved for a convention centre.Story continues below this ad In 2015, the original reservation was altered, and the land was temporarily reserved as a public open space. Why? The authorities say it was done to protect the land from illegal encroachments. After this, walls were erected around the ground as a preventive measure. A year later, the land parcel was handed over to the MFA. Since then, the football enthusiasts have used it as a football playground. But in 2015, the BMC also released its 20-year development plan (DP) 2034 draft for Mumbai, projecting how the city is expected to look by 2034. It included ward-wise land reservations for civic amenities, proposed road widening and transport corridors, and land reservations for housing and open space. It was also then that the Neville D’Souza ground’s reservation was changed to a recreation ground permanently in t
Xabi Alonso, Mikel Arteta and Enzo Maresca are among those in the running to be the Premier League's next superpower manager with the exit of Pep Guardiola. (AP Photo) 6 min readAug 10, 2026 10:22 AM IST First published on: Aug 10, 2026 at 10:18 AM IST No player is bigger than the club; no manager is bigger than the league either. The Premier League has endured the departures of Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger; Jurgen Klopp and the many iterations of Jose Mourinho. So it will eventually reconcile with the departure of Pep Guardiola, even if Manchester City might or might not waddle through the post-Ferguson kind of apocalypse United suffers. Little doubt that with Guardiola, the league would lose a slice of its identity, glitter, and even aura. The Premier League considerably owes its supremacy and pride to the Spaniard who remoulded the league with his ideals. It could be the most symbolic moment in the league since the arrival of Roman Abramovich and his bottomless coffers of petrodollars; it could be a season of flex and flux, renewal and regeneration, of an impressionable cast of managers, most of them worshippers of Guardiola, dreaming to be the next manager-idol, the next Guardiola. It would be a battle of wannabe superpower managers.
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