Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Shri Vijay Goel today inspected the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi which is one of the venues for the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 to be held in October this year. The officials at the venue appraised the Minister about the work in progress for renovation being done at the Stadium for the World Cup.

Shri Goel said that he is happy with the pace of preparations and more than 90% of the work has been done completed. He also instructed the officials and concerned authorities to speed up the process and complete the pending works in a time bound manner. Shri Goel said that as per official information, India will play all its group matches (total 3 in number) in Delhi. He said the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi would be requested to inaugurate the World Cup at the National Stadium, New Delhi. Shri Goel also said that India would be keen and willing to host other FIFA events in future too.

He said, In order to popularize football and the upcoming World Cup, his ministry has initiated Mission XI Million Programme to take football across India and among eleven million kids. Shri Goel also said that school children would be invited to watch the World Cup matches. The Minister said that he is happy to see that across various sports, India has been doing well in recent times and the Government will continue to support players in every possible way.

Shri Goel has visited all the venues across India to check the preparedness for the upcoming World Cup which is the first FIFA tournament to be hosted by India.

(Press Information Bureau, Government of India)