Chennai and Bengaluru, as expected, have been excluded from the provisional list of six venues for the 2017 under-17 FIFA World Cup to be held in India.
Tournament Director, Javier Ceppi, on Monday, added the name of Goa to the five cities — Kochi, Navi Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata and Guwahati — announced earlier. The certification is crucial as it allows the selected venues to speed up work and avail themselves of necessary central funds to complete the same.
Yet, Project Director Joy Bhattacharya stuck to his earlier view that no city has been ruled out, and that “the World Cup can be hosted by five, six, seven or eight cities, because, at the end of the day, India was given this World Cup in order to develop football in the country.”
But for this to happen, Bengaluru has to completely rebuild the Bangalore Football Stadium (BFS) in order to meet the necessary FIFA criteria. The situation looks grim as the work has not even started.
And in Chennai’s case, it was made clear from the start that the local organisation has to show some tangible progress by at least submitting the bid documents — the minimum prerequisite.
It was reported in these pages on June 1 that they were yet to be sent and it has been learnt that the situation remains unchanged.
However, with Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa back as an MLA after winning the by-election held recently, there is hope within the local organisation that things will finally move forward. However, repeated calls to the Tamil Nadu Football Federation president Jesiah Villavarayar went unanswered.
“Chennai has a simple task ahead — they have to get the State government on board,” Bhattacharya told The Hindu . “Without all the required official sanctions, we cannot evaluate their readiness. The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium is one of the first FIFA-compliant stadiums in the country.
“Given that there is already a quality stadium, the city has a comparatively easier task ahead. It is only a question of willingness from the government. Compared to Chennai, Bengaluru has a huge task ahead. “They have to start from scratch; it is a race against time,” Bhattacharya said.
The deciding factor will now be the January 2016 deadline. “If progress is not made by January 2016, these cities will fall out of contention,” he said.
Karnataka State Football Association (KSFA) president A.R. Khaleel, however, remained confident.
“We have issued tenders for the reconstruction of the BFS. The tenders will close on July 8. Once we award the contract, the reconstruction work can start immediately,” Khaleel said.
With inputs from N. Sudarshan in Chennai
