Kochi on Wednesday became the first Indian city to be officially declared as one of the venues for hosting the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup after it received a green signal from a high-level delegation of football's world body. "Based on what we have seen and based on all the works we have done with the Government of Kerala, with the Kerala Football Association, with all the different stakeholders here in Kochi, we are extremely pleased to announce that Kochi has been ratified as the venue for the FIFA U-17 World Cup. He said the decision to ratify Kochi as the venue has been taken after discussing it with all the stakeholders. Tracy Lu, Project Lead FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017, said the preparations at one of the footballing hotbeds of India is fit for this stature. Thus, I believe that it would make for a terrific World Cup venue," Lu said.

Source: dna October 19, 2016 09:45 UTC