FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017: Willingness, Readiness of States will be Key in Allocating Matches, says Tournament Director Javier Ceppi
The Under-17 World Cup will be the biggest football tournament to be played on Indian soil. The 24-team event will be played in six Indian cities from October 6 to 28 and the organising committee is confident there won’t be any delays in completing the infrastructure, as was the case during the Commonwealth Games. In an interview with The Indian Express, the tournament director Javier Ceppi talks about the readiness of the states, the impending FIFA inspections and the kind of legacy they expect the tournament to leave. Excerpts:
How do you look at the preparation since the time the Local Organising Committee (LOC) took over?
We officially started on November 2014. The AIFF had done a fair amount of work before that. The tournament was allocated in December 2013 and FIFA had an inspection in February 2014. From 2013 to early 2016, it was a process of convincing everybody. One of the good and bad things about India is that it is very good at implementation. Which means that there is a tendency of missing steps; of relying on , ‘you know what, we can do this last minute.’
The initial attitude of every single stakeholder, ‘we are 3 years away from the tournament, why are you coming now?’ So it has taken a lot of convincing, a lot of travel. But we are in a position right now, where we are okay when it comes to infrastructure development, which has been a sour point in the past. Fortunately, we are not seeing it as a huge issue.
You have said the venues will be ready soon. So between now and October, when the World Cup begins, what will be done to ensure they remain in proper condition and are maintained well?
We rather have that issue than construction issue. Maintenance can be so easier than construction. For all main sites and venues, the Field of Play (FoP) is the most important part that requires maintenance on a daily basis. We (LOC) are taking over maintenance in April or whenever they are ready. Only exception is Guwahati, which hosting the Himalayan Games.
We will engage companies who have experience of maintaining grounds to a certain level. There are six or seven Indian companies which do that and we will invite tenders. We will also look at international companies but they will have to meet our criteria such as they should have maintained grounds for a certain quality or a tournament.
Are there specific guidelines from FIFA with regards to FoP?
There are very specific guidelines for everything. With grass, it is a little complicated in the sense that whatever works in Iceland or Europe won’t work here because the weather conditions are different. But there is a preferred length of grass, which is 28mm. There is a way to cut the grass, to maintain it, etc. There is testing on water salinity and soil… So there are many factors that have to be taken into consideration which is why it is a specialist role. From the LOC’s end, we are also getting a consultant to oversee all the maintenance. The consultant who has experience of not only working in India or subcontinent but experience of delivering grounds for best events such as Champions League, World Cups etc. Ground is a very important aspect. FIFA will be conducting two more inspections, one next month and then again in May.
What does FIFA look at when their team comes for an inspection?
Priority 1 to 20 for FIFA is the players and match officials. Then, of course spectators who play a very important role. But the thinking is, if you don’t have 22 players and the 3 officials, you won’t have anything. No spectators, no media, no VIPs. You just don’t have an event. And that is sometimes forgotten here. There are a lot of events where athletes are last of the last. So FIFA a lot of focus is on competitions area – dressing room, referee facilities, doping control, medical facilities, etc.
When you decide to allocate matches to a particular venue, what aspects do you look at?
We are yet to make the match schedule but it is generally finalized before we know which team is going to play on which day. So it depends on the draw. So let’s say if a Portugal goes to Goa or if Argentina qualifies and goes to Delhi…same with Brazil, these are your ‘high-profile’ teams.
But there are several factors while allocating matches to a venue. One is atmospheric and climatic conditions. This is not just with pollution but potential of rains. There are certain places that have a receding monsoon. So you have a proper monsoon in Kochi to Goa but you have receding monsoon elsewhere. There is a gap in between in beginning of October to end of it. That’s one factor.
The other factor is readiness and willingness. When a stakeholder – state government – wants to go all out for a tournament, sees the vision of the tournament and goes all out for it, that makes it easier for us to say, ‘they can have more key matches.’ Because you know you will have full support.
You don’t want a situation where you are going to a venue where it is not sold out and you bring a marquee match and they begin with issues on them, no permissions, etc. instead of making it easier, it gets complicated. Willingness is about state govt and owners of facilities. End of the day, you need to see how their support and enthusiasm is rewarded. It also ties into filling the stadiums part. A state govt that is more involved will also be involved in aspect of filling of the stadium. The image of that state will go on TV. When they see empty stadium, the first thing they will say is the stadium was empty because the city was not interested.
Are the six venues final or will we see any change?
At this point of time, we truly believe six venues we have ratified will host the tournament. Disasters can always happen. Right now, we are looking at change of venue only on a force majeure situation. But we are focussed on six. We have worked with them and we would love for them to deliver.
What kind of legacy you expect the World Cup to leave?
There are three main areas. Firstly, The quality of stadiums. For example, bucket seats in Kolkata, that’s a huge project. They have installed bucket seats and a lot of other things have changed. The stadium is looking completely different. Training grounds are another thing. Stadiums are used once a week or so for league and other tournaments, but not by public. Training grounds, however, can be used by a number of different people. The 26 training sites will be larger bit of legacy program. And to involve children, we have our Mission XI Million program. It will help in getting more people to play football. We will have a lot of kids playing, not all of them will become footballers, but they will then have their kids or their friends playing football. That will leave a huge legacy.
Courtesy : indianexpress
