As the FIFA World Cup football enters its exciting knockout stage and fans of the beautiful game stay up bleary-eyed to watch the greatest sporting spectacle in the world, the game is in focus here in Mumbai for entirely different reasons.

Footballers, present and former, fans and locals staged a peaceful protest on Sunday against the BMC’s Improvements Committee’s recent decision to remove the reservation of the Neville D’Souza Football Ground at Bandra Reclamation, which is in Bandra West and re-designate the plot as an exhibition/convention centre.