FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup: Number of venues could also be lowered from 5 to 3

The variety of venues for the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup, to be held in India later this 12 months, is more likely to be lowered owing to the pandemic.

Jaime Yarza, FIFA’s Director of Tournaments, stated on Tuesday that they’re ‘open’ to the likelihood however no resolution has been taken but. A FIFA group is at present within the nation to examine the venues for the 16-team occasion, scheduled to be held from October 11 to 30.

Currently, 5 venues have been named to host the competitors – Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Guwahati, Ahmedabad and Navi Mumbai. Two cities are more likely to be dropped from the listing, it’s learnt.

When requested whether or not the match might be held in simply three cities, Yarza stated: “Anything is open right now. There is no final decision, no final evaluation. It is a little bit together with the AIFF that FIFA will make a proposal after this inspection to see that we can guarantee success in the tournament and strengthen the development of women’s football without jeopardising the health of all the participants.”

India was initially scheduled to host the U-17 World Cup in 2020. However, that version was cancelled as a result of Covid-19 pandemic and the nation was given the proper to host the competitors in 2022. It’ll be the second main worldwide soccer championship the nation will host this 12 months, having just lately held the ladies’s Asian Cup throughout three venues in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune.

That match was held in the course of the third wave of the pandemic and noticed India being pressured out after taking part in only one match after a Covid outbreak inside the group.

Yarza stated they’re ‘evaluating various factors’ to verify such a state of affairs isn’t repeated. However, he added that there’s a chance that they won’t have a strict bio-bubble in place. “We do have an open mind on such matters but at this moment, it looks like we may not have to implement strict bio-bubble protocols. But the pandemic is not over so we will take all necessary safety measures. At the end of the day, the health of the players is very important,” Yarza stated, including {that a} resolution to permit spectators for the matches might be taken in session with native authorities.

The FIFA group visited Navi Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium on Tuesday and is ready to journey to Bhubaneswar on Wednesday, the place they’ll examine the Kalinga Stadium.

Yarza stated that, amongst different features, they are going to look fastidiously ‘to minimise travel’ for the groups. “This is one of the things we are looking at carefully – to minimise travel as much as possible between the venues and to make sure, whenever travel is required, it is under the right circumstances which might be with chartered flights and things like that… These are various ways of doing this, these are part of the plan which we are re-evaluating.”