As India gears up to host its first big-ticket FIFA event, the U-17 World Cup, delegates from the governing body are on a week-long inspection tour of the six host cities, starting with New Delhi. The World Cup is slated to be held in October this year.
The delegation is headed by Jaime Yarza , FIFA Head of Tournaments, and the others present were Inderjit Singh Dhamija , Joint Secretary, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports; Sanjiv Baranwal , Director (Infra) Sports Authority of India; Javier Ceppi , Tournament Director, LOC FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017; and Joy Bhattacharjya , Project Director, LOC, FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017.
Joy Bhattacharjya: Most of the things are in place for U-17 World Cup
Yarza feels more work needs to be done: “There has been some work which has gone on to the stadium and that is very commendable. However, now that the tournament is less than 200 days away, work needs to gather pace, especially at the training sites.
“I’ve been told that Delhi has had problems with attracting crowds for football. I’m hoping the first ever FIFA tournament in the city changes that.”
Javier Ceppi feels: “There has been a fair amount of work and improvement in Delhi since the last FIFA visit. We are very thankful to the Sports Authority of India for all the work that has been put into the renovations of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and the two training grounds”.
Expanding on the training sites for the tournament in the capital, he added: “We’re appreciative of Delhi University for agreeing to be our training site. We’re also very happy to confirm that Sudeva FC will be the fourth training ground in Delhi. There is still some work that is happening but we are confident that with the support of Sports Authority of India, it will be completed very shortly.”
New Delhi was ratified as a venue back in October 2016. The delegation will continue its inspection of the five remaining venues with Goa as the next stop, followed by Kochi, Navi Mumbai, Guwahati and finally Kolkata.
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