chennai sports minister udhayanidhi stalin on saturday said former chief minister m karunanidhi was a football fan inaugurating the muthamizharignar kalaignar centenary electronic football tournament for college students in chennai organised by dmk sports development wing and dmk chennai west district udhayanidhi stalin while addressing the gathering recalled how karunanidhi liked football kalaignar karunanidhi was a football fan in the first part of nenjukku needhi autobiography of karunanidhi he would have said that the distance or the speed of the kick does not matter it is all about the ball reaching the goal post people should have the same coordination of taking the ball to the goal posts kalaignar said that the same principle applies both to the game and life said udhayanidhi both kalaignar and our chief minister m k stalin are both sports lovers seeing my interest in sports i was given the sports ministry and it has been six months since i took charge as the minister said udhayanidhi he said the selection of coaches and students for the sports development authority of tamil nadu sdat hostels were done in a fair manner for the first time 76 coaches to sdat were selected on merit basis and there was complete transparency similarly the admission of students to sdat hostels was also done without accepting any recommendations said udhayanidhi hr and ce minister p k sekar babu central chennai mp dayanidhi maran mla and thousand lights mla n ezhilan were also present at the inauguration function