A FIFA Delegation led by Iñaki Alvarez (Deputy Director of Competitions, FIFA) is currently inspecting various venues for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup in India [+ INDIA 2017 Facebook page].

The AIFF need to choose six host cities from a shortlist of eight, namely New Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore, Kolkata, Kochi and Guwahati, depending on the assessment made by the FIFA Delegation.

Alvarez along with Vijay Parthasarathi (Manager IT Competitions, FIFA), Dr. Shaji Prabhakaran (Development Officer South & Central Asia, FIFA), Anil Kamat (Assistant General Secretary and Director Competition, AIFF) and Sunando Dhar (CEO, I-League) have already visited Pune, Mumbai, Goa and Bangalore.

Their journey continued with an inspection of the facilities in Kerala yesterday. The FIFA Delegation visited the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and also various possible training venues in the St. Albert’s College Ground, Maharaja’s College Stadium, Ambedkar Stadium, SH College Ground, Thevara and the Fisheries College Ground in Panangad.

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“Clearly, the place has a history and tradition in football… we respect that. We also saw the commitment and the passion for the game. What we have seen so far has been very encouraging,” Alvarez told at the sidelines of the inspection.

“With the World Cup the big thing is the infrastructure. That’s why we are here so early. There is plenty of time to put the facilities in place.”

“There will be discussions and we will make more visits, not too many though,” he added.

The FIFA Delegation also met Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, various state ministers and Kerala Football Association (KFA) officials on Monday to discuss the needed support by the Goverment of Kerala. The Kerala CM assured Iñaki Alvarez of all assistance for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup [+ INDIA 2017 Facebook page].

(Picture courtesy Kerala Football Association)