FIFA UPDATE
The other obvious issue with age group
”
tournaments is the age of the players. We can only delay them for so long before it has a massive knock-on effect on the football calendar
Kalinga Stadium Bhubaneswar - India WU17 Group Games
In lockdown - Alan Ferguson, FIFA’s Pitch Management Manager
Usually, the FIFA pitch team would only have three tournaments in a year, whereas the six finals in twelve calendar months will bring about many different challenges
” One of the more unusual challenges facing the team in India 54 PC June/July 2020
China announced they had a pandemic, we were on a visit to Wuhan - where the outbreak started - and everything seemed normal when we were there. There were no signs of what was going to unfold.” “We’re now eight weeks into lockdown in the UK and plans are well underway on how we are going to rearrange the tournaments. Initially, it was difficult because there was a lot of hypothesising about potential dates, but this has become much clearer due to the formation of a FIFA led task force which has been challenged with aligning all the tournaments into the international football calendar. With those confirmed dates, a significant revision of plans and budgets has been carried out in conjunction with the project leads and host countries and is almost complete.” “Rescheduling the dates for the final tournaments has been relatively easy compared to the issue of completing the qualifying phases. This obviously involves
much more travelling for each nation and, logistically, will take more consideration, but without it, we can’t have the finals. The other obvious issue with age group tournaments is the age of the players. We can only delay them for so long before it has a massive knock-on effect on the football calendar. The age eligibility has been extended into 2021, despite the tournament titles staying the same because, ultimately, FIFA wants every player in every age group to have the opportunity to play at a World Cup.” Usually, the FIFA pitch team would only have three tournaments in a year, whereas the six finals in twelve calendar months will bring about many different challenges. The Women’s U-17 World Cup was due to be hosted in five cities in India in November 2020 and, for Alan and his team, the postponement has brought some welcome additional time for planning and executing work. The tournament will open in Kolkata, with the closing phase, including the final, in
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