‘U-17 World Cup tickets to cost less than ₹100’

GIVEN THAT THERE WILL BE 52 MATCHES, EACH STADIUM WOULD GET AT LEAST EIGHT MATCHES

KOLKATA: Javier Ceppi, the tournament director for the under-17 World Cup, said tickets for India’s first World Cup football event, would be priced at less than ~100.

“We will be launching tickets by mid-May and it will be priced for less than what it takes to watch a movie and for what it costs to watch other leagues,” said Ceppi, at a media conference at Salt Lake stadium that looked every bit a work in progress here on Thursday.

“The change here is astonishing,” said Ceppi who comes visiting every three weeks. “I am extremely satisfied with the progress here and at other five other venues. You must realise that this stadium is humoungous and could hold 120,000 people and will now be reduced to 87,000. So work here will take time but it will be between 90 to 95% complete by the time a Fifa inspection team visits next month.”

That inspection will happen on March 28, said Subrata Dutta, president of the Indian Football Association, football’ s apex state unit.

The cost of renovation work here is approximately ~150 crore, according to an stadium official. Barring around ~14 crore, which is being spent from a central governemt grant, the rest is being borne by the state government. Work started in 2014 and apart from last minute spit and polish that includes painting, it is expected to be complete by next month.

By May 28, the 24 teams including India will be identified. By July 7, where the teams will play will be identified, said Ceppi. Given that there will be 52 matches, each stadium would get at least eight matches.

And though the average attendance at two of the last four under-17 World Cups has been less than 10,000, Ceppi said all efforts would be made to get more people in. “India is not treating this like an under-17 World Cup but its first (football) World Cup,” said the Chilean. “That is because nobody wants to see an empty stadium.”

Ceppi clarified that Delhi would definitely be hosting matches of the World Cup that will be held from Oct 6-28. “We will analyse the impact of pollution post-Diwali and then decide whether to allot matches after that,” he said. Diwali is on Oct 19 this year.