Bringing good news to the region, FIFA and the local organizing committee of FIFA U-17 World Cup has announced Guwahati as one of the venues for the semi final and quarterfinal of the prestigious football tournament.

Following a week-long inspection tour of the six venues chosen for the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017, FIFA and the local organising committee released the official match schedule and unveiled the tournament slogan on March 27.

The tournament will start in New Delhi and Navi Mumbai with the first double headers being held on October 6. The quarterfinals will be in Goa, Guwahati, Kochi and Kolkata, while Guwahati and Navi Mumbai will host the semi finals. The final of the championship will be held in Kolkata’s iconic Salt Lake Stadium.

Guwahati will be home to Group E besides hosting one round-of-16 and one quarterfinal match.

Speaking at the announcement of the match schedule, head of FIFA tournaments, Jaime Yarza said, “The FIFA U-17 World Cup is an exciting milestone for the growth of football in India and it has now reached a very important stage. The match schedule has been created following a thorough analysis of players’ health, competition format, team movements, weather, local festivities, geography and other factors. Each venue will host at least eight matches, and we took existing infrastructure into account, as well as local enthusiasm, when allotting the matches.”

LOC tournament director Javier Ceppi added while introducing the official slogan, “This is the first time that India is hosting a FIFA tournament. It will be also the first time an Indian team will play in a FIFA competition. In recognition of the increasing excitement about the beautiful game in India, ‘Football Takes Over’ was the first and most fitting choice as the official slogan for the tournament. Soon we will open ticket sales and fans will have great opportunities to attend matches at discounted rates. We are expecting huge interest from football fans in this historical FIFA U-17 World Cup in India.”

India, as host automatically secured place in the competition. Additional countries from the Asian Football Confederation to have qualified are – Iran, Iraq, Japan and Korea DPR. The qualified teams from South America are – Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and Colombia, followed by New Caledonia and New Zealand of the Oceania Football Confederation. Teams representing countries from Europe, North and Central America and the Caribbean and Africa will qualify in the coming months. The draw for the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 will take place on July 7 in Mumbai.

Subscribe to our Newsletter


Avatar photo
About TNM NewsDesk

-

The News Mill is a Guwahati-based digital media with focus on content from across Northeast India and beyond. We can be reached through [email protected]