Kochi: Today, the deadline for complete readiness given to Kochi by Fifa for the U-17 World Cup, expires. Though a tour of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the main venue for the event in the city, and the four training grounds on Sunday showed that work was not fully finished, the local organising committee (LOC) has said that Kochi is safe.
The LOC that was supposed to visit the city on Monday has postponed it until Thursday due to the arrival of Spanish football great Carles Puyol for ticket sales and promotional activities of the World Cup in New Delhi and Mumbai.
However, tournament director Javier Ceppi said that “the progress made in the infrastructure works are in line to meet the deadlines given.”
Fifa head of tournaments, Jaime Yarza, had warned the city that its chance to host the World Cup “will be in danger” if it failed to meet the requirements set by the governing body for world football. Kochi was the only venue among the final six cities, which had not satisfied Fifa during its final round of inspection in March.
“Since the FIFA inspection visit on 24th March, the LOC has done seven inspections to Kochi, which is basically once a week, to assess all the deliverables that must be completed in Kochi,” said Mr Ceppi.
“Comprehensive reports have been issued that allow us to evaluate the level of readiness on the infrastructure front and the last reports indicate that the progress made in the infrastructure works are in line to meet the deadlines given. This gives us enough confidence that Kochi will indeed be able to meet its infrastructure deliverables for the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017.”
He also informed that the state government has provided in writing that the shops around the stadium will be closed. “That was a major point that had to be solved,” he said.
