The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium will face its sternest test yet (BCCL image)

NEW DELHI: Back in July, when FIFA decided to move India's matches in the Under-17 World Cup from Navi Mumbai to New Delhi, doubts were raised whether the hosts will have to play in front of near-empty Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium , given the unpredictable nature of the Capital crowd. The move was initiated by the All India Football Federation ( AIFF ) after coming under pressure from the sports ministry.

On the eve of India's first match against the US on Friday, the Capital was yet to warm up to the mega-football event. While FIFA remained reluctant to release a final figure on the amount of tickets sold, it's understood that most tickets remained unsold despite being priced at discounted rates of Rs 150 for Category 3 seats in North, South and East stands and Rs 300 for Category 2 seats in the West stands on match days. Category 1tickets are priced at Rs 600 in West stand and Category 4 at Rs 60 both in North and South stands on match days.

Getting a wind of the crisis, the Government of India, along with FIFA Local Organising Committee (LoC), has planned to bring 27,000 schoolchildren to the stadium.“The LOC has already distributed 27,000 tickets in 500 schools around Delhi and NCR. We will provide them with to-and-fro transport too. We are providing an opportunity to the schoolchildren to see their heroes in live action,” an LOC spokesperson told TOI on Thursday.

With only a handful of fans queuing up at the box office on Thursday - the last day of ticket sale - one wonders if the almost-vacant Nehru Stadium, which has a capacity of around 56,000, will be a bad advertisement for the sport in the country. If tickets have remained unsold in the Capital, the situation at other venues is relatively better. Such is the craze in Kochi that FIFA had to reduce the ground capacity to 29,000 from 60,000 citing security issues. The parent body has also released tickets accordingly.

While the fans in Kochi, Kolkata and Navi Mumbai are flooding the practice venues to watch the future stars train, the Indian team has hardly witnessed any support in the Capital apart from the host association bringing in schoolchildren for their encouragement. The picture isn't any different in the training sessions of Ghana, US and Colombia, where a handful of media personnel and volunteers were the only spectators over the last few days. To make matters worse, the heat and humidity in the Capital has also played a part in keeping the spectators away, raising questions over the rationale of bringing the game to Delhi.

An LOC member, on conditions of anonymity, said that the government had to bring in schoolchildren to save their blushes. “Initially, the plan was to bring around 15000-16000 kids. But when we realized that tickets sales were slow, we had to increase the number. The only tickets which are completely sold out are the online ones. However, that is a very nominal percentage of around 10000,” the member said.

Another drawback is that FIFA has not yet released tickets to the host association, meaning AIFF remained handicapped when they tried to rally their fans.

