U-17 World Cup: Navi Mumbai to miss out hosting India games

by Chittu Shetty April 15, 2017

Apparently, AIFF wants certain politicians and VIPS, visiting India games in New Delhi instead of Navi Mumbai since a lot of money has been invested on this team by the sports ministry

In a major development regarding the U-17 FIFA World Cup scheduling, DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, which was supposed to host the Group A games has now been replaced with New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, with the former now hosting group B games.

India being the host nation was supposed to be placed in Group A which meant the national team playing their games out of the capital. As a result, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has changed the schedule accordingly but with FIFA and the local organising committee, yet to be informed.

“Initially, we had decided to play the matches at the D Y Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai but later changed our plan as the sports ministry too favoured Delhi as the venue,” stated the AIFF general secretary Kushal Das.

FIFA will announce the match schedule on July 7 in Mumbai. According to the schedule, India’s league matches are to be played on October 6, 9 and 12 in Navi Mumbai. The only Group A match at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium will take place on October 12. If the changes in schedules are approved b FIFA, Delhi will host the Group A matches while Navi Mumbai will be allotted the Group B fixtures.

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Due to high pollution in the city, there were reports suggesting that Delhi would miss out hosting the marquee matches of the prestigious FIFA Under-17 World Cup. The football federation were concerned aboutthe pollution level in the city after Diwali.

With the tournament scheduled to be held from October 6-28, the all-important knock-out games will be held after Diwali, which falls on October 19 this year. So these matches are expected to be held at the other five venues — Navi Mumbai, Margao, Kochi, Guwahati and Kolkata but not Delhi.

The tournament will start on October 6 with a double header in New Delhi and Navi Mumbai. The quarter finals will be in Goa, Guwahati, Kochi and Kolkata, while Guwahati and Navi Mumbai will host the semi finals. The final of the FIFA U-17 World Cup will be held in Kolkata’s iconic Salt Lake Stadium.

Head of FIFA Tournaments, Jaime Yarza said, “The match schedule has been created following a thorough analysis of players’ health, competition format, team movements, weather, local festivities, geography and other factors. Each venue will host at least eight matches, and we took existing infrastructure into account, as well as local enthusiasm when allotting the matches.” It will be interesting to see FIFA’s reaction on this change of Scheduled Venues by AIFF and will the decision stay or not.