“The first impression is very positive. We can see the commitments of the people,” said a FIFA official.
The two-member FIFA delegation comprised of Constantine Wielland, Vijay Parthasarthy along with AIFF Vice-president Subratta Dutta, Roma Khanna, Manager AIFF Licensing. They had a close look at all quarters of the stadium and suggested to have to two more dressing room at the west stand.
There will be 24 teams including India which gains automatic entry being the hosts.
These will be divided into six groups of four teams for the preliminary rounds of the final competitions.
The AIFF is yet to decided on the six venues which will host the tournament. As per the competitions rule applied for the under-17 World Cup that United Arab Emirates hosted this year as general rule final competitions matches played in all-seater stadiums.
Matches will be played on artificial surfaces. Where artificial surfaces are used, the surfaces must meet the requirement of the FIFA quality concept or the International articial turf standard.
The organizing association will provide training sites for the team. In principle, each team shall have dedicated training site. These training sites shall be in good conditions and approved by the FIFA at least 10 days before the start of the competitions .They shall be situated to the hotel and made available at least five days before the opening match until one day after the team ‘s last match in the World Cup. Each site shall be equipped with at least one dressing room with lockers, showers and toilets. AIFF is yet to get cracking despite very little time that is left for preparations. One hopes AIFF wakes up fast as new year is approaching only two years now remain.
The panel inspected the stadium and checked the facilities such as dressing rooms, medical room, doping room, pitch, Match Commissioner and referee’s room.
Furtado, Vice-president of GFA South Goa; Gurudas Vernekar, stadium manager of PJN Fatorda; GFA members Anthony Pango, Arnaldo Costa and Jaju Fernandes were also present.
