Bhubaneswar: Odisha is going to host FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup for football. The Kalinga Stadium, the Centre of Excellence in Sports will host three India pool matches on 11, 14 and 17 October of the current year.
Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra directed the officials to complete assigned preparatory works by end of September. The progress of the works regarding infrastructure up-gradation in Kalinga Stadium, up-gradation of training facilities, additional parking facilities, pitch maintenance, additional power in training sites, promotional activities like 38 days school programme and city activation, city barding, hospitality for guests, players and dignities, organisation of football carnival involving around 60,000 school students, etc were reviewed in the meeting.
FIFA official Roma Khanna expressed deep satisfaction over the progress. She said “Odisha is home to hockey, and now the State is also becoming home to football”. She also praised the sports eco-system developed in Odisha.
Further, Chief Secretary laid emphasis on ensuring health, sanitation, security and fire services.
Development Commissioner Padeep Kumar Jena advised to deploy ODRAF and Fire service teams in advance there at Kalinga Stadium. All concerned departments were directed to extend their active cooperation for making the event smooth, safe and memorable.
Principal Secretary Finance, Vishal Dev, Principal Secretary Information & Public Relations Sanjay Kumar Singh, Police Commissioner Saumendra Kumar Priyadarshi and others were present.
It was decided that public viewing of the matches would be allowed. Tickets would be sold online through the site https: // india2022wwc.com/explore/c/ fifa. Chief Secretary asked the departments of School and mass education and Sports and youth services to work out the schedule for match viewing of school students in the Stadium.
Secretary Sports, R Vineel Krishna said, “Football training centres (4 natural grass ground, 1 artificial grass ground) will allow ample training time to the visiting teams without clashes in training schedule. The main football ground that recently hosted Indian Women’s League and SAFF U20 is amongst the best football venue in India, and will provide a wonderful experience to the young players”.
Three matches would be played in Kainga Stadium. The scheduled matches would be India vs, USA on 11 October, India vs, Morocco on 14 October, and India vs Brazil on 17 October.