Confident India will put up a good show at under-17 FIFA World Cup: Tournament Director

Mumbai: India will have the privilege to host the under-17 FIFA World Cup after the world governing body entrusted the subcontinent the right to host the third-most important event on its calendar -- the Under-17 World Cup India 2017 -- at the closing ceremony of the 16th U-17 World Cup in Chile recently.

With 24 countries playing 52 matches, the tournament is scheduled to be played across six world-class FIFA certified venues in India. Stadia across the country are running against time to ensure state-of-the-art facilities, with pressure on AIFF to meet the deadlines.

There were reports earlier citing preparations in the subcontinent were not according to FIFA standards. Tournament Director of the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 Javier Ceppi, who earlier had termed football pitches in India as ‘unfit’, is confident India will put up a good show.

“We are finally in a good position where tenders have been issued by the state governments. We are quite confident that the work will start and we will meet the deadlines,” Ceppi said on the sidelines of ‘The Football Movement’, an event organised by UK Trade and Investment held here on Monday.

On being quizzed further if world-renowned football stars would be gracing the main event, Ceppi stressed on the need to give more importance to home-grown icons.

“You don’t need to focus on others. We have the biggest stars in Indian football. Those stars are enough. Those players are the ones that the kids should be looking up to. Kids should be the fans of the Indian national team not of foreign teams,” he added.

Ceppi also revealed that there has been a change with respect to the participation criteria in the tournament. “In Chile 2015, we had one nation from Oceania and six teams from Europe. Whereas in 2017 we will have two teams from Oceania and five teams from Europe,” he pointed out.

With India featuring for the first time at the main event after 87 years, the FIFA official refused to make any predictions about the hosts’ chances of progress in the tournament.

“India will compete, and that is the most important thing. India is hosting its first football world cup after 87 years of FIFA world cups. Competing in this tournament in itself is a big thing,” he signed off.

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