New Delhi:
The world football governing body FIFA’s inspection team is satisfied with the planning aspect of India’s preparations for next year’s Under-17 World Cup but said that major renovation works need to be done in most of the six stadia to be compliant with international standards.
The team led by FIFA head of events Jaime Yarza said that the state and central governments, and the football federation will have to start construction work immediately if the stadia are to be ready by October deadline.
“I must say that the FIFA delegation is satisfied with the planning of the U-17 FIFA World Cup. The AIFF, the local organising committee and governments have done a very good job as far as planning is concerned. We are 80 per cent satisfied with the planning of the tournament,” Yarza said at a press conference here.
“But we need amendments in the ground plan and all the six stadiums need major renovations. October is the deadline for the stadiums to comply with standards required for hosting a World Cup match. The state and central governments and local organising committee will need to start the construction work immediately,” he added.
“We still have time but October is not far away and all the stakeholders will really need to start work. Now is the time to start working on the implementation of the plans.”
The FIFA team has been in India since February 14 and had inspected stadiums in Kochi, Goa, Mumbai, Kolkata, Guwahati before coming here. The team inspected the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here.
Yarza didn’t divulge the major renovations needed in the six stadia but talked about two aspects—dressing room, and safety & evacuation of spectators—when asked specifically.
“I cannot tell all these before I submit the report to the local organising committee in a few days. But the dressing rooms in all the stadiums are not enough and they are small in size also. Each stadium must have four dressing rooms and they need to construct new dressing rooms,” he said.
On being asked if the stadia comply security standards for hosting a World Cup match, Yarza said they need to make changes on this aspect also though there were no major issues.
“We have not come with a security expert. A security inspection will be done later. But we have to look into the safety and evacuation of fans, like how long will it take for the fans to be evacuated from the main gate.
“As of now we don’t see any major issues but there are work to be done in this aspect also,” Yarza said.
He said that the D Y Patil Stadium in Mumbai has been the best of the lot.
