By Paul Nicholson
February 20 – A FIFA delegation today starts an 11-day inspection visit of India in preparation for the 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup. The tournament will be the first major FIFA competition hosted by India, a member of the Asia Football Confederation (AFC).
India will be the fifth AFC federation to host the competition which was first held in China in 1985 and last held in the UAE in 2013. The 24-team competition takes place every two years and will be hosted by Chile in 2015, before heading to India in 2017.
The visit starts in New Delhi but the first stadium tour will be in Mumbai where the delegates will tour the Cooperage stadium which has been resurfaced with artificial turf under FIFA’s ‘Win in India with india’ campaign.
The Cooperage is the only one of the Indian stadiums being inspected that is currently being refurbished, a programme that began in 2011. The stadium has not hosted any competitive football match since then with the I-League matches of home team Mumbai FC currently being played in Pune.
The delegation will visit the eight venues shortlisted for the tournament. The FIFA team will inspect the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi on February 25-26.The other shortlisted stadia are Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata, KSFA Stadium in Bangalore, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium at Margao, Kochi and Guwahati and Balewadi Stadium in Pune.
Only six venues are required for the finals. The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the football hotbed of Chennai was not included in the list
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