A delegation of the world football governing body FIFA, accompanied by members of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), visited the DY Patil Stadium to assess the progress of preparations at the Navi Mumbai venue for the Under-17 World Cup.
FIFA Head of Events Jaime Yarza expressed his satisfaction with the preparations at the venue. "We are very impressed by the stadium here -- the efforts put in by Vijay Patil and his team are exemplary and that will show when the World Cup happens here in less than 200 days time," Yarza said in a statement.
Tournament Director of the LOC, Javier Ceppi was also very happy with the preparations at Navi Mumbai.
"It is always a pleasure to come back to Navi Mumbai. The team at the DY Patil Stadium keeps setting the highest benchmark. Even though the DY Patil Stadium has met all our requirements, they keep trying to make their facility even better," he said.
"We are sure that all the people from Maharashtra will be very proud about DY Patil hosting the World Cup and will come down in numbers to watch all the matches.
"We are also appreciative of Navi Mumbai Sports Association as their training ground is practically completed and will be among the best ones in the country, and we are thankful to the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation, as they will develop the Yashwantrao Chavan Maidan ground to be the fourth training site in the city," he added.
Also present at the press conference were Western India Football Association (WIFA) CEO Henry Menezes and Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) Additional Commissioner Ankush Chavan.
The FIFA U-17 World Cup India begins on October 6. The next stop of the delegation will be Guwahati before it concludes its inspection in Kolkata.
--IANS
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