The hard-hitting facts of India's first ever FIFA World Cup told by Javier Ceppi at IFF 2017

AT THE 2017 Indian Football Forum, Javier Ceppi, Tournament Director of the LOC for FIFA Under 17 World Cup, revealed some ground-breaking facts about the problems faced by him and his team.

Addressing the attendees at IFF 2017 held in Mumbai on Friday, December 15, Ceppi shared the vision and objectives behind hosting the World Cup in India. Starting with the ground realities and problems such as finding pythons on training facilities, Ceppi elaborated that the focus was always on athletes and fans experience not VIP friendly.

In a country like India, the VIPs were given priority over the actual athletes. 317 LOC staff were equipped with essential World Cup standards knowledge. The foundation of the training facilities and stadia were built to sustain heavy usage and those facilities are still being used by many professional teams. The safety stewards trained who were imparted useful knowledge are in use in many of the ongoing football I-League and Indian Super League. Ceppi also explained about reducing the capacity of the JLN stadium in Kochi for having no casualties during the World Cup.

Watch the entire talk from Javier Ceppi at the Indian Football Forum 2017 on YouTube.