No one gets caught. What is implied here is that this is not some talented bunch of kids and they will get busted in the senior level against the same teams just like the current senior team. It's more of the same from the past, we haven't really created a structure for talent to nurture. Apart from the government funded and owned infrastructure, we will barely gain anything from this WC. And who will maintain this white elephants of stadiums after the WC? AIFF IMGR ISL I-League clubs?
‘FIFA U-17 World Cup in India could be one of most watched editions of all-time’
The FIFA U-17 World Cup will take place from October 6 to 28. The Indian team has been drawn in Group A alongside USA, Colombia and Ghana.
The FIFA U-17 World Cup will be held from October 6 to 28. All of India’s group games will take place in New Delhi.
The number-crunching is far from done and sale of tickets nowhere near completion but a top official connected with the under-17 World Cup said he is confident that this could be one of the most watched editions of all time.
“The edition that could give us competition is Mexico (2011). Then, we had 70,000 watching the final at the Azteca stadium but, of course, Mexico was playing. And remember you are talking about a strong football nation,” said Joy Bhattacharjya, project director, local organising committee, of the under-17 World Cup, here on Tuesday.
Mexico became the first host nation to win the under-17 World Cup. The total attendance, according to figures available on the Internet, was 1,002, 314 or 19,275 per match. That has been the second-highest turnout in this biennial competition after 19,781 in Egypt in 1997.
In 2013, the average attendance was 6,117 per match and in 2015, it was 9,279. In the 2009 edition held in Nigeria, the turnout was 14,977 per match.
Though the details of ticket sales so far were not available, it has already been mentioned that all tickets released so far for the final, in Kolkata on October 28, have been sold out. On the two occasions season tickets were released, those allocated for Kolkata got sold out in hours.
Bhattacharjya also said the response in New Delhi has picked up once it got known that India would be playing there.
“Seen filling the stadium (in New Delhi) may not be a problem but we would really want those who would want to watch India live at a football World Cup to come,” he said.
The response to the October 6-28 World Cup so far has also shown that Indians are open to the idea of buying tickets for a sporting event well in advance if given the opportunity, said Bhattacharjya. This is something other sporting events could replicate, he said.
I dont think that any stadium has been built specifically for U-17 World Cup. So this point of white elephants is a non-starter. ISL is using stadiums built for National Games decades ago. Renovating stadiums is a time bound process, such events (U-17, SAAF, National Games etc.) help them to reach that level.
It is FIFA which chooses the venues for such events (U-17 WC) in order to develop infrastructure at par with FIFA standards in developing countries. Thats why such tournaments are held in those countries which not necessarily host World Cup or Euro Cups.
More Regional Academies in different parts of India and healthy competition between them for places should have been the AIFF strategy 4-5 years back. Instead focusing on only one core group and clsing down of various regional academies citing lack of funds has hampered India chances.
Just to clear one thing age determination done using bone centres ( from where different parts of bone arises and later fused together to form a matured bone) appearance and fusion time. According to standards 15-18 years in male may have similar appearance on x-ray but from 18 or 19 onwards they change dramatically and it is quite evident thus hard to fake. What I am trying to convey is that, a 17 years old lad may be 15 to 19 but he can't be 21 or 22 if he has been tested using x-rays or mri. And this methods are pretty accurate. It was heard that AIFF had done mri tests for age group teams. Then how they can fake even after that? What is fifa's procedure to check for age frauds?, they should announce it as a mandatory criterion to submit mri / x-ray reports.
If anyone is interested may go through this pdf. Specially table no 1 on page 3
So much negativity in this thread. I never understand how anyone can guess the age of players from their face........ I mean i had beard at mere age of 14 but that doesn't mean i was 20+ at that time.
This is how Diego Costa looked like when he was 17 years old. This pic is from 2006. Try playing against him in U-17 World Cup. Some people look grown up - that does not mean that everybody is an age-cheat.
Comments
‘FIFA U-17 World Cup in India could be one of most watched editions of all-time’
The FIFA U-17 World Cup will take place from October 6 to 28. The Indian team has been drawn in Group A alongside USA, Colombia and Ghana.
The number-crunching is far from done and sale of tickets nowhere near completion but a top official connected with the under-17 World Cup said he is confident that this could be one of the most watched editions of all time.
“The edition that could give us competition is Mexico (2011). Then, we had 70,000 watching the final at the Azteca stadium but, of course, Mexico was playing. And remember you are talking about a strong football nation,” said Joy Bhattacharjya, project director, local organising committee, of the under-17 World Cup, here on Tuesday.
Mexico became the first host nation to win the under-17 World Cup. The total attendance, according to figures available on the Internet, was 1,002, 314 or 19,275 per match. That has been the second-highest turnout in this biennial competition after 19,781 in Egypt in 1997.
In 2013, the average attendance was 6,117 per match and in 2015, it was 9,279. In the 2009 edition held in Nigeria, the turnout was 14,977 per match.
Bhattacharjya also said the response in New Delhi has picked up once it got known that India would be playing there.
“Seen filling the stadium (in New Delhi) may not be a problem but we would really want those who would want to watch India live at a football World Cup to come,” he said.
The response to the October 6-28 World Cup so far has also shown that Indians are open to the idea of buying tickets for a sporting event well in advance if given the opportunity, said Bhattacharjya. This is something other sporting events could replicate, he said.
Renovating stadiums is a time bound process, such events (U-17, SAAF, National Games etc.) help them to reach that level.
It is FIFA which chooses the venues for such events (U-17 WC) in order to develop infrastructure at par with FIFA standards in developing countries. Thats why such tournaments are held in those countries which not necessarily host World Cup or Euro Cups.
More Regional Academies in different parts of India and healthy competition between them for places should have been the AIFF strategy 4-5 years back. Instead focusing on only one core group and clsing down of various regional academies citing lack of funds has hampered India chances.
If anyone is interested may go through this pdf. Specially table no 1 on page 3