AIFF waiting for FIFA feedback about venues for U-17 WC

Jamshedpur: All India Football Federation (AIFF) will start the renovation work of the venues that will host the 2017 Under-17 World Cup after it gets the feedback from FIFA team. "We are waiting for the feedback from FIFA about the venues they have inspected recently and initiate action to upgrade or renovate accordingly," said Subhankar Mukherjee, Director, National Teams, AIFF.

Mukherjee, who was in the steel city to take part in the 10th Convocation of Tata Football Academy (TFA) here last night, told that AIFF was expecting that the feedback from FIFA would be received by this weekend. "We wanted to know what sort of stadium or facilities FIFA wants to host the world cup matches and we will accordingly develop the venues," he said. Among the eight venues FIFA officials had inspected, the cities proposed to host world cup matches included Kolkata, Pune, Mumbai, Kochi, Banguluru and Guwahati. "Like Board of Control for Cricket in India, the football associations in the country did not have their own stadiums, which were being maintained by the respective state governments," he said adding AIFF would work with the respective governments to develop or renovate the existing facilities. "The union government has already sanctioned Rs 120 crore for the purpose," he said. To a query about Indian team`s preparation for the mega event, Mukherjee said AIFF has been preparing for over a year. In fact, the first coaching camp for 30 probables have already been conducted in Goa and the second camp was likely to begin soon. "We could increase the number of probables in the camp," he replied when asked whether final team selection would be done among the probables in the camp. Mukherjee expressed satisfaction over the standard of I-league.