The variety of venues for the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup, to be held in India later this yr, is prone to be decreased owing to the pandemic.
Jaime Yarza, FIFA’s Director of Tournaments, mentioned on Tuesday that they’re ‘open’ to the likelihood however no resolution has been taken but. A FIFA crew is at present within the nation to examine the venues for the 16-team occasion, scheduled to be held from October 11 to 30.
Currently, 5 venues have been named to host the competitors – Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Guwahati, Ahmedabad and Navi Mumbai. Two cities are prone to be dropped from the listing, it’s discovered.
When requested whether or not the event might be held in simply three cities, Yarza mentioned: “Anything is open right now. There is no final decision, no final evaluation. It is a little bit together with the AIFF that FIFA will make a proposal after this inspection to see that we can guarantee success in the tournament and strengthen the development of women’s football without jeopardising the health of all the participants.”
India was initially scheduled to host the U-17 World Cup in 2020. However, that version was canceled because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the nation was given the correct to host the competitors in 2022. It’ll be the second main worldwide soccer championship the nation will host this yr, having just lately held the ladies’s Asian Cup throughout three venues in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune.
That event was held in the course of the third wave of the pandemic and noticed India being pressured out after taking part in only one match after a Covid outbreak throughout the crew.
Yarza mentioned they’re ‘evaluating numerous elements’ to ensure such a state of affairs is not repeated. However, he added that there’s a chance that they may not have a strict bio-bubble in place. “We do have an open thoughts on such issues however at this second, it appears to be like like we might not need to implement strict bio-bubble protocols. But the pandemic just isn’t over so we’ll take all crucial security measures. At the top of the day, the well being of the gamers is essential,” Yarza mentioned, including {that a} resolution to permit spectators for the matches might be taken in session with native authorities.
The FIFA crew visited Navi Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium on Tuesday and is about to journey to Bhubaneswar on Wednesday, the place they will examine the Kalinga Stadium.
Yarza mentioned that, amongst different features, they’ll look rigorously ‘to reduce journey’ for the groups. “This is one of the things we are looking at carefully – to minimize travel as much as possible between the venues and to make sure, whenever travel is required, it is under the right circumstances which might be with chartered flights and things like that… These are various ways of doing this, these are part of the plan which we are re-evaluating.”
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
