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India on course to host Under-17 World Cup

December 19, 2016 23:00 IST

'We are confident and happy about how things are moving. Things are in motion and I hope they get into momentum," Ceppi told reporters after a tie-up was announced with Bank of Baroda for the tournament'

FIFA U-17 World Cup tournament director Javier Ceppi (right) along with Project Director, LOC, FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 Joy Bhattacharya, General Secretary, All India Football Fedration Kushal Das, General Manager (Marketing, Corp, Comm. and WMS) Bank of Baroda Rakesh Bhatia at a press conference in Mumbai on Monday

IMAGE: FIFA U-17 World Cup tournament director Javier Ceppi (right) along with Project Director, LOC, FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 Joy Bhattacharya, General Secretary, All India Football Fedration Kushal Das, General Manager (Marketing, Corp, Comm. and WMS) Bank of Baroda Rakesh Bhatia at a press conference in Mumbai on Monday. Photograph: Santosh Hirleka/PTI

Javier Ceppi, tournament director of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup to be hosted by India next year, expressed his happiness about the way things were moving ahead in the preparation of the tournament.

"They (preparations) are coming along (well). Work is happening in all the venues," said Ceppi in Mumbai on Tuesday, adding work that was stopped due to the conduct of Indian Super League, has restarted at all the venues.

"We are confident and happy about how things are moving. Things are in motion and I hope they get into momentum," Ceppi told reporters after a tie-up was announced with Bank of Baroda for the tournament.

"We have less than 10 months left (for the tournament to commence). This is huge (tie-up with Bank of Baroda). This is the first one for our event," he commented about an Indian bank joining hands with the world football body for a junior event.

The U-17 World Cup is scheduled to be held from October 6-28 and the matches are to held in Navi Mumbai, Goa, New Delhi, Guwahati, Kochi and Kolkata.

Ceppi was impressed with the facilities at the Dr D Y Patil Sports Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

"D Y Patil and Vijay (Patil) are always extremely supportive and huge partners of us. They have done all that was required and they are planning to do more. The (DY Patil) stadium has good bucket seats, but they want to change them.

"They say for the World Cup they want to show a new facility. They have already done up their dressing rooms. We are happy with how the facilities are in Navi Mumbai and it's moving along quite well," Ceppi said.

"For the World Cup, unlike for other events, security is a complete responsibility of the state and local forces, which makes it a little bit different. It's not so dependent on financiers or private security coming in or not (coming in)," he remarked when queried over the security set-up for the event.

"The security forces of the state will be in charge. We have spoken with everybody and all the police forces. They are organised and have plans in place," he added.