With just four months to go for India’s first ever international tournament, the FIFA Under-17 World Cup, the authorities at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai are gearing up to make it an unforgettable experience.
The Local Organising Committee is ramping up the provisions for the World Cup as FIFA has given them a deadline. “FIFA has given us a time limit for a green cover by June 30, and we are monitoring it continuously. We are working with the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation authorities to ensure that the Yeshwantrao Chavan Maidan is ready well in time with three other grounds for training purpose,” said Tournament Director Javier Ceppi.
Canadian pop star Justin Beiber’s concert on May 10, 2017, hosted 45,000 thousand people and put DY Patil stadium on the global map. “It was an excellent operational test because the massive crowd helped us identify many things that we will iron out for the World Cup. We are working with different authorities with regards to traffic control, transport, parking areas and other miscellaneous areas that we feel can be improved upon for the World Cup,” he added.
DY Patil was rated higher than the stadiums in Kochi and Delhi, which received negative reviews from FIFA’s delegation inspected the stadiums in March. “The stadium is almost complete, and we expect all minor work to be completed well before the World Cup. The local authorities at the DY Patil have maintained the stadium well after Indian Soccer League,” Ceppi said, talking about the maintenance of the ground.
The tickets are being sold online and there has been a positive response from the Indian football enthusiasts. “The ticket sales are going very well, it has exceeded the expectations. There are two venues that have exhausted the inventory that was put up for sale at this point of time (Kolkata and Guwahati), one that is very close to doing so, and Navi Mumbai also having very strong sales, so we are quite happy about how they are going,” said Ceppi talking about ticket sales around the country.
