Fifa U-17 World Cup: DY Patil stadium set to be revamped for tournament

Mumbai: The city-based DY Patil Stadium, which is one of the venues for the FIFA U-17 World Cup to held in October next year in India, is set to have a new look for the mega football event. All the seats in the stadium, which has a capacity to accommodate 55,000 spectators, will be changed in view of the World Cup. [caption id=“attachment_3174268” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  DY Patil hosted the 2014 ISL final. ISL[/caption] “In view of the (Fifa U-17) World Cup, we are changing all our chairs in the stadium and the stadium will have a brand new look,” DY Patil Sports Academy President Vijay Patil told PTI today. He said that the new seats would be designed in such a way to provide “comfort to the spectators” and there will be no fatigue on them. “This work will get completed by May next year. My view is that the best facilities should be provided and we are going with that philosophy,” Patil added. The U-17 World Cup is scheduled to be held from 6-28 October. Goa, New Delhi, Guwahati, Kochi and Kolkata are the other venues of the tournament. On 20 October, a Fifa team had ratified the DY Patil stadium as a venue for the tournament. “The existing facilities are also being refurbished and renovated for the World Cup. We have put in place new dressing rooms among other things,” Patil said. Patil also said that he was in constant touch with the Fifa team with regard to the World Cup. Recently Tournament Director Javier Ceppi had expressed his happiness about the way things were moving ahead in the preparation of the tournament. “DY Patil and Vijay (Patil) are always extremely supportive and huge partners for us. They have done all that was required and they are planning to do more. The stadium has good bucket seats, but they want to change them,” Ceppi had said. “They say for the World Cup they want to show a new facility. They have already done up their dressing rooms. We are happy with how the facilities are in Navi Mumbai and it’s moving along quite well,” he had told reporters last week.