Bhubaneswar: Kalinga Stadium in the Odisha capital may well turn out to be the main venue for the U-17 FIFA Women’s World Cup football tournament in October.
The event was slated to be held in 2020, but was cancelled due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially five cities were selected to host the matches.
They were Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Guwahati and Navi Mumbai.
However, FIFA had recently said that it is ready to reduce the number of venues due to Covid guidelines.
If that happens, the Kalinga Stadium may well emerge as the sole venue or the host for the maximum number of matches in the tourney.
A FIFA delegation visited Wednesday the Kalinga Stadium here to inspect the facilities.
The team led by tournament director Jamie Yarza expressed satisfaction with the facilities available and also suggested some alterations and additions.
Overall, it was clear that the members were not averse to holding the event in the Odisha capital only.
They also had a fruitful meeting with state Sports Secretary Vineel Krishna.
“Odisha has emerged as the hub of sports. The stadium has been developed enormously. A FIFA team is evaluating all the functional areas as well as the renovations at the stadium,” Yarza said.
Yarza also informed that discussions about the modalities of the tournament with the Odisha government are underway.
“There are still many things to be done. Hopefully they will be completed in time,” he said.
PNN