The home of Indian football, Kolkata will host the final of the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup set to kick off in October 2017. The world football body, FIFA, whose inspection committee is in India to keep a track of the preparations have confirmed that the final will be held at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on 28th of October 2017.
The 21-member FIFA delegation led by Jaime Yarza inspected the six proposed venues (New Delhi, Goa, Kochi, Navi Mumbai, Guwahati and Kolkata) for India's first ever FIFA tournament.
"The team is very pleased with the improvements that have been made in the last few months. If it goes on like this, this stadium will fulfil all the highest standards. We are still monitoring the venue elsewhere," Yarza said in a press conference.
The tournament will kick off in Navi Mumbai's DY Patil Stadium on October 6, 2017. The quarterfinals will be held in Goa, Guwahati, Kochi and Kolkata, while Guwahati and Navi Mumbai will host the semi-finals.
Tournament Director of the Local Organising Committee Javier Ceppi said, "It is a happy day for me because all the questions about the match schedule will stop being asked. We can finally focus on other things. It has been an extremely complicated process to finalise the schedule to have a World Cup in India - different festivities, weather patterns, different timelines."
"We know that October is a month of festivities and we want this to be a festival of football," Ceppi added.
A new slogan had been previously announced which is "Football takes over".
"This is the first time that India is hosting a FIFA tournament. It will be also the first time an Indian team will play in a FIFA competition. In recognition of the increasing excitement about the beautiful game in India, ‘Football Takes Over’ was the first and most fitting choice as the Official Slogan for the tournament," Ceppi said.
India who have been automatically qualified for the World Cup as hosts, will be up against Iran, Iraq, Japan and Korea DPR (AFC), Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and Colombia (CONMEBOL), followed by New Caledonia and New Zealand (from OFC). Teams representing countries from Europe (UEFA), North and Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF) and Africa (CAF) will be finalised soon.
The draw for the U-17 World Cup is set to take place on July 7 in Mumbai.
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