On the day the first deadline ended, the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, one of the proposed venues for the U-17 World Cup football tournament -- taking place in India for the first time, is almost ready, a Kerala Minister said on Monday.
Kerala Minister for Sports and Industries A.C. Moideen told reporters at the venue here that the stadium is almost ready on the day of the deadline -- which is Monday.
"Things are panning out as we have planned and today is the day where we had to finish certain works as desired by the FIFA delegation. We are happy with what has been done. In the next two days, we have the next deadline and we will be ready and then there are some works to be finished by the May 30. Things are fine and we have no concerns at all," Moideen said.
The FIFA delegation is arriving on Thursday, when they will have a look at what has been done to make the stadium suitable for hosting U-17 World Cup matches.
Kochi was awarded one quarter-final on October 22, besides six Group D matches.
New chairs have been fixed at the stadium and it all remains to be seen if the visiting FIFA delegation will be happy over the work that's going on in getting the practice venues ready.
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--IANS
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