Kolkata: The much awaited FIFA Under-17 World Cup 2017, India 2017 will be hosted during October 6-28, 2017, the draws to be held on July 7 in the event’s year.
Earlier the FIFA delegation along with the LOC officials went through the process of ratification of the proposed venues about various in-house facilities before announcing the verdict; and approved the six venues for the World Cup 2017. The venues which got FIFA’s nod are JLN Stadium Kochi, DY Patil Stadium Navi Mumbai, JLN Stadium Fatorda, JLN Stadium New Delhi, IG Stadium Guwahati and Salt Lake Stadium Kolkata.
Speaking in the press conference held post the ratification of the sixth and final venue, which eventually was Salt Lake Stadium in the city of joy, Kolkata, the LOC Tournament Director of the LOC, Mr Javier Ceppi said that the World Cup will take its rightful place in Kolkata as the single most important football event the football crazy state of West Bengal has ever hosted. The Tournament Director Javier Ceppi cautioned however that the approval by the highest football body doesn’t means a blank cheque as the progress of the work that is being done will be assessed periodically.
Before that in the press conference, the Salt Lake Stadium was announced as the sixth venue of the most prestigious FIFA activities to be happening in India so far, and so was the dates of the event.
Speaking about the stadium infrastructure, FIFA Competitions Department Lead, Marion Mayer-Vorfelder said, “Massive amount of work has gone into the stadium, impressive improvements since our last inspection in February. Lot of work has been done hence the ratification. The stadium has the potential to be one of the best in the country and can also compete internationally.”
Earlier, Kolkata became the sixth and final venue to get the approval for the FIFA U-17 World Cup by the 13-member FIFA delegation. The visiting delegation checked the state of the pitches and training sites before ratifying it for the marquee event.