Javier Ceppi, tournament director of FIFA U-17 World Cup, has been in India for two years and nine months now. By his own admission he has aged a bit, lost weight and rattles off cricket scores, matches, players' performances like any other Indian cricket fan. With 62 days left for the kick-off to the U-17 World Cup, the Spaniard is visiting all match venues, making a loud pitch for locals to buy tickets to the football event.
Its not an easy task, he admits.
Delhi is hosting all India matches and that makes Ceppi's job tougher. The national capital is not known for its soccer crazy public nor for its craze to buy tickets. At least not like other centres like Kochi or Guwahati.
“Each country has different challenges and peculiarities. We have six different venues, six different official languages, six different chief ministers and sports ministers, different bureaucrats, demonetisation and change of tax structure. Lots of changes have happened. We are not complaining, we have people to work around these changes,” Ceppi said.
Addressing a press conference in Delhi on Friday along with tournament local organising committee (LOC) director Joy Bhattacharjya, Ceppi acknowledged the challenges of putting together a football world cup in a country which has never participated in the event ever at any level. But he looked assured and stated that things were on track.
The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium is getting ready to host the matches, being spruced up both from the inside as well as as outside. “There’s a lot of work happened at the stadium, some great work. The stadium is 90-95 per cent ready. The stadium is a good facility and has to be made even better. The fans need to be more enthusiastic, the ticket sales have definitely boomed, but by the standard we have seen in Kolkata, Guwahati and Kochi, we expect a bigger boom,”said Ceppi.
India, who is making its debut in a FIFA tournament as a participant as well as the host, will face the United States of America in their opening game and will go on to play Colombia and Ghana in the 58,000-seater stadium in the country’s capital. It must be noted that hosts India's matches were all given to New Delhi on the express wish of the ministry of youth affairs and sports, despite the fact that filling up the large stadium will be a challenge especially when the hosts are underdogs.
Ceppi felt that despite no history or experience of Indian football in World Cups the public should come out and support the team. “India is in a very competitive group. We (FIFA) expect the team to be competitive, result is secondary. The odds are practically stacked against India.”
The India U-17 team is currently on a tour to Mexico where it lost 5-1 to a former U-17 World Cup champions. However, Ceppi reminded everybody that the team had undertaken a 40 hour journey, got only two days of rest and played on an altitude of 2,100metres. Therefore one shouldn't read too much in the result.
Speaking about response to the tournament so far at home, Ceppi said, “I expected more sales. It's the Indian national team versus the likes of Ghana, USA and Columbia. Delhi is somewhat behind Kolkata, Kochi Guwahati and Goa,” said Ceppi.
“This is football take over period. If we do the World Cup right, it will matter a lot to Indian football,” said Bhattacharjya.
Speaking about the forthcoming global competition, he said, “This is the time you will see the LOC as well as all our stakeholders engaging in massive promotional campaigns. Besides the nationwide Mission XI Million programme, we are coming up with trophy experience tour for the fans, which will help the fans get closer to the official winner’s trophy of the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017. We are also planning to make it a good experience for fans—easier to come to stadium, give access to drinking water and access to washrooms especially for the ladies.”
