Barely months ago, Chennai was nowhere in the picture as one of the prospective venues for the 2017 FIFA under-17 World Cup to be held in India. It seemed to have passed up every opportunity to make its bid count.
Yet, it has managed to come back into the reckoning. A few question marks over other venues and the good conduct of the inaugural Indian Super League (ISL) matches in 2014 meant that the city was named as one among the prospective venues. As project director Joy Bhattacharya recently told The Hindu in Kochi, “FIFA is waiting for that big push from the Tamil Nadu government to get things moving.”
Add to that the fact that the tournament authorities might be looking at expanding the list of host cities to include more than six centres has given it hope. “The under-17 World Cup is a development tournament,” said Bhattacharya on Saturday. “FIFA has picked India as the host for the 2017 edition only to promote the game in the region. Chile 2015 has seven venues, so even in India there can be more than six venues, as long as it is commercially feasible.”
But how did things reach such a stage where Chennai has to play a catch-up game? From the time the original shortlist of eight host cities was made in late 2013, the administrative limbo, first in the Tamil Nadu Football Association (TFA) and then the State government, has ensured that it has missed every deadline.
“We got the TFA’s letter of interest after the deadline had expired,” AIFF secretary Kushal Das had told The Hindu in April last year.
“But, we made an exception and asked them to submit the required documents related to the host city agreement.”
It is to be noted that the bid documents have not been sent till date. The effort to finalise the bid documents had in fact started in July 2014, when the general secretary of the TFA wrote to the State government, through the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT), seeking permission to use the SDAT Jawaharlal Nehru stadium. The list of FIFA-mandated requirements that a host city needs to fulfil was also attached.
The government, within days, sought clarifications on certain technical issues through its legal team to take the process forward. Almost a year has passed since then, but the TFA is yet to reply.
When quizzed on the delay, its president, Jesiah Villavarayar, who took over in September 2014, refused to dwell on the past and said he was hopeful that everything would turn out well in the end.
“We are meeting the Sports Minister in the first week of June, and are hopeful that things would move quickly,” he said. “We are trying our best to make it happen. We are in the process of readying the bid document. We continue to maintain a good rapport with FIFA.”
But, the task seems daunting. Four cities — Guwahati, Kolkata, Kochi and Mumbai — have already been given provisional nods after the recent round of inspections. The certification, as Bhattacharya said, “allows the selected venues to speed up the work and avail themselves of necessary central funds”.
Goa and New Delhi may have encountered a few hiccups — relating to one of the training venues in the former’s case and discussions with the stakeholders (the State and Central governments) in the latter’s — but they are expected to be resolved soon.
The ISL has no doubt given a much-needed facelift to the Nehru stadium, but more needs to be done outside it too (see box).
One among those is with respect to the practice grounds. It is learnt that in the report the FIFA inspection committee submitted last December after its visit to Chennai, the four practice grounds — MCC Tambaram, University Union ground, SDAT Nehru Park and Nehru Stadium ‘B’ ground — weren’t rated highly.
“The FIFA team will visit Chennai if and when the local organisation shows some tangible progress,” said Bhattacharya.
The onus is thus on the TFA and the State government to show that.
(Additional reporting by K. Keerthivasan & Ayon Sengupta)
What comprises the bid?
A snapshot of what the bid document consists of:
Stadium agreement: Stadium plan and the fulfilment of norms as listed by FIFA. For example, the pitch size has to be 105x68 metres and with three to five metres of grass around. Commentary box and media centre with 100 workstations having cable, internet facility, four equal size dressing rooms, match official rooms, one for dope testing with refrigeration, VIP area, 40 TV monitors with live match feeds etc.
Host city agreement: Four practice grounds, exclusive zones identified by FIFA in which the host city has to ensure that commercial and non-commercial activities shall not operate, environmental concerns, comprehensive public liability insurance to cover possible losses, bodily injuries, property damage etc, and the same is to cover FIFA and its personnel etc.
Government guarantee 1 (Security): VIP guest protocol and traffic clearances.
Government guarantee 2 (Taxation): An undertaking regarding exemptions with respect to indirect taxes without any pre-conditions.
