Mumbai: A FIFA delegation led by Head Events Jamie Yarza inspected the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai – one of the provisional venues for the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017. Tomorrow the FIFA team will head to Kolkata to inspect the Salt Lake Stadium.
Besides Mr. Yarza, Henry Menezes, CEO – Western India Football Association, Vijay Patil Owner – DY Patil Stadium and Javier Ceppi, Tournament Director – LOC FIFA Under 17 World Cup India too spoke with the media in a brief interaction happened at the stadium.
Mr. Yarza expressed his satisfaction over the preparations at the stadium terming it as a ‘World Cup Level’ stadium, “We think this is a fantastic stadium, as you can see it is high quality. One colleague of mine was saying that with a few amendments this could be a senior men’s World Cup stadium. We are satisfied and happy to be here. Obviously we need to do some construction work and renovations for dressing rooms, various areas, doping technical rooms and medical, all this is in the plans.”
He added, “We have come here today, did the review of the plans and the facilities and suggested some changes to make it up to the standard we expect from a World Cup level stadium. They have agreed to all the changes and the whole planning was to 95 percent correct in the sense that there will be some minor adjustments. So we are very satisfied from this visit today and we think this is going to be one if not the best.”
Mr. Patil concluded the interaction by thanking FIFA for bringing the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017 India to Mumbai. “This is a historic moment for Indian sports. We are deeply honoured that FIFA is visiting our facility. We are putting our best foot forward and it is going to be the start of a great movement in India’s sporting history.”