U-17 WC

CWG

All India Football Federation

Praful Patel

World Cup project director Joy Bhattacharjya

Delhi’s Commonwealth Games

ISL

FIFA Club World Cup

Change is here...

ByIndia’s challenge is to have a legacy plan postand utilise the new football facilities to maximum potential.Major sporting events bring new training fields, new dressing rooms, new bucket seats and upgrades across football infrastructure in a host country. During the event, fans will fill the stands, boots will chomp down the lush grass and the voice of coaches will boom across the hallways along with the thudding of studs in stadium tunnels. But World Cups also bring white elephants. As South Africa, Brazil and Delhi in the case of thehave shown, building and renovating infrastructure is certainly a task — but it is maintaining and making sure these continue to be used which is the real challenge.So whilepresidentrightfully said that India is “100 percent ready to host the World Cup” — the real question is whether we are really prepared, assays, “to keep these facilities humming.”“Maintaining the stadiums is important but what is underestimated is the constant use of the training sites. Stadiums will be required anyway — but we’ve ensured fantastic training pitches with floodlights and two dressing rooms which also need to be used and are capable of hosting 50 to 70 games a year,” he said.Reports from Brazil and South Africa after World Cups and the 2016 Games have been disturbing. A New York Times report described Olympic facilities in Rio as ‘decaying’ with stadium entrances being ‘boarded up’ with ‘screws scattered on the ground’. The warm-up pool is mentioned as being ‘decorated with piles of dirt and puddles.’ Bhattacharjya also cites some cricket stadiums around India which witness very few matches every year, making it hard to motivate authorities to stop them from crumbling.South Africa spent more than $3 billion on their new stadiums and renovations during the 2010 World Cup — facilities which are largely unused and faced scathing criticism. The government had ideas to utilisestructures but those fell short. This is where a legacy plan comes in. The U17 World Cup’s Local Organising Committee is making sure stakeholders are educated on maintenance and will be given a legacy document which lists down every renovation at every stadium and how to utilise these facilities to their maximum potential.“The works done on the stadiums has been on long overdue renovations, to bring them to more safe and secure standards. We are trying to work with different stakeholders to explain the usage and how it can be kept on similar standards as the ones they are now,” U17 World Cup director Javier Ceppi said.Thankfully Indian football seems to have generated enough steam to finally take-off in a big way come 2017. Theand the I-League are set to run parallel this season onward, meaning at least 180 league matches across India. All the six designated World Cup venues will witness club football. There is also the added advantage that India has not had to build new stadiums for this event.“The first thing was we focused to do what was absolutely critical to do and not to undertake in massive renovation works which would them make these facilities impossible for maintaining them in the long run. The works done on the stadiums has been on long overdue renovations, to bring them to more safe and secure standards,” Ceppi said.Lessons from around the world have meant India has taken the right step in starting out small with a junior WC. The AIFF also confirmed India has bid for the FIFA U20 WC which means the federation is already acting on using these facilities to host bigger events. Praful Patel has also been ambitious in bringing home theThe Indian government sanctioned Rs 95 cr for WC infrastructure. This is over and above what the states have shelved out for renovations, Ceppi informed. The change in facilities is striking — carpet- like pitches instead of barren land and bucket seats for fans. Kolkata and Guwahati have received up to four new training pitches. Toilets and evacuation facilities have also been renewed along with CCTV security systems. India also stands 4th in the list of countries with stadiums which can seat more than 20,000 fans — a remarkable statistic which needs to be exploited.If the stakeholders can pull together, India can become a prime country for sporting events. 6th October 2017 should be seen as just the start of what could be an invaluable sporting legacy - and if handled responsibly, its effects will be felt far beyond the final day of the tournament.Two new team dressing rooms, two new referees’ dressing rooms, new safe evacuation gates , two new floodlight towersNew 23,000 individual bucket seats, improved toilet, stairs and evacuation facilities, improved sports lighting, four heavily improved training grounds with floodlights, dressing rooms and international standard pitchImproved toilet, stairs and evacuation facilities, complete new fire- fighting systemComplete renovation of fire-fighting and electrical system, new CCTV System for security, new safety and security standards, four new training grounds with floodlights, dressing rooms and international standard pitchThree new dressing rooms, new safe evacuation gates , improved sports lighting, two new training grounds with floodlights and international standard pitchNew bucket seats, two new team dressing rooms, new safe evacuation gates, three new training grounds with floodlights dressing rooms