The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi has been given the green signal to host matches for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup. The Local Organising Committee for the Under-17 World Cup has confirmed that Kochi will stage eight World Cup matches after an inspection today found the preparations to be on schedule.
There has been huge pressure on Kochi and the Kerala Football Association to deliver before today’s evaluation, and LoC officials, including tournament director Javier Ceppi, have given their seal of approval to Kerala as one of the host states for the Under-17 World Cup.
The Under-17 World Cup is set to be staged in India later this year. It will be the first time India hosts a FIFA tournament. In the process, an Indian national football team will participate in a FIFA tournament for the first time.
The 24-team World Cup kicks off on October 6th and will run for 22 days until the final on October 28th.
The concerns surrounding Kochi’s inadequate preparations to get the stadium — Kerala Blasters’ home ground in the Indian Super League — ready ahead of the Under-17 World Cup reached a head when the idea of a replacement venue was mooted.
There were also talks about making the upcoming World Cup a five-venue event instead of six. However, Minister of State for Sports Vijay Goel assured everyone earlier this month when he said the Kochi stadium would be ready by the end of the month. The local organisers, staff and personnel in charge of preparing the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium have seen their work reap its rewards today.
Host city preparations not only include getting the main stadium ready, but also making sure the training facilities are up to the mark. With Kochi being given the green signal, it is expected that the training facilities are also almost ready.
Kochi will host eight Under-17 World Cup matches. Six of those will be group matches while the other two matches will be knockout round matches. The other venues are Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Goa and Guwahati. Kolkata will host the final, which is on October 28th.
