My name is Owais. I am a fifth-generation Mumbaikar and a real estate professional with 17 years of experience in this city. I have watched Mumbai change — building by building, open space by open space.

And I am tired of watching us lose.

What is happening:

The BMC's Improvement Committee has cleared a proposal to convert the Neville D'Souza Football Ground at Bandra Reclamation — an 8,450 square metre public sports facility — into a convention and exhibition centre.

A contractor will build it. Someone will name it. And the children of Bandra will be told to find somewhere else to play.

There is nowhere else.

What this ground means:

For 9 years, the Neville D'Souza Ground has been Mumbai's football home. Grassroots tournaments. Youth leagues. Women's league. Elite divisions. Thousands of children, teenagers and adults have played here every single season.

It is named after Neville D'Souza — the first Asian to score a hat-trick in Olympic history, at the 1956 Melbourne Games. A Mumbaikar. A legend who almost became a footnote until this ground gave him his name back.

And now we are going to bulldoze it.

Why this matters beyond football:

We ask why India — 1.4 billion people — cannot qualify for the FIFA World Cup.

This is why.

You cannot build a footballing nation without maidans. You cannot produce players in apartments. You cannot manufacture champions in convention centres.

Every time a ground disappears in Mumbai, we are not just losing open space. We are losing the next generation of athletes before they even lace up their boots.

Mumbai already has one of the lowest open space per capita ratios of any major city in the world. Every maidan that goes is gone forever. Concrete does not come back.

What we are asking for:

Withdraw the proposal to convert Neville D'Souza Ground into a convention centre

Retain its existing sports reservation under Mumbai's development plan

Upgrade it — better turf, lighting, changing rooms, seating

Identify an alternative site for the proposed convention centre

Commit to a policy that protects all remaining public playgrounds in Mumbai from commercial conversion

This is not a political petition.

This is a Mumbai petition.

Signed by someone who loves this city enough to fight for it.

Sign if you believe Mumbai's children deserve a place to play.

Sign if you believe open spaces are not assets to be monetised.

Sign if you believe India's World Cup dream starts with protecting a maidan in Bandra.

— Owais Machhiwala

Fifth-generation Mumbaikar | 17 years Mumbai Real Estate