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Not Swacch At All! FIFA U-17 World Cup 1st Match At Delhi Was A Total Nightmare.

byRachna Srivastava
7th October 2017
2 minute read
Delhi-FIFA-2017

If after cricket Indians take a keen interest in any sports, then it’s football. Then hockey, tennis, kabaddi, and others follow suit. The excitement around any football series is pretty high, so if India’s hosting one of them, then one can only imagine the unsurmountable levels of excitement in our fellow citizens.

The opening match of the FIFA U-17 World Cup between India and the United States of America, that took place at Delhi’s Nehru Stadium, was a momentous occasion.

But, the organisational gaffe left a sour taste in the mouths of those present.

According to Hindustan Times, there were about 27,000 tickets that the government had distributed to schoolchildren so that they could come and see the grandeur of India’s very first FIFA U-17 World Cup match.

It was also done to fill in the seats as they couldn’t afford to make the stadium look empty, especially when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at the ceremony.

Kids wearing FIFA-tees and caps were forced to elbow each other, just to get a bottle of water and quench their thirst. Not only that, some were even forced to drink water from the toilets.

https://twitter.com/ayaantiwaricr7/status/916601778514231297

Adding more to their difficulties were the food packets that were distributed only in the second half and not earlier; as they reached late to the stadium due to the security checks.

Not much can be said about the swacchta of the stadium too. One of the other major issues at the venue was the lack of adequate dustbins.

There were rather very few dustbins in the area where the kids were seated. Those near the gates were overflowing with trash and then surrounded by some more on the floor.

This is the outside area, which resembles a dumping ground.

The whole venue was swamped with empty food packets, water bottles, and other trash. So much for Swacch Bharat Abhiyan!

That’s not it. Delhiites were quite pissed at the traffic snarls in the city too.

https://twitter.com/ayaantiwaricr7/status/916596693969145858

Which led to the conclusion by some that we as a nation are not ready to host events on a huge scale.

Then, there was the goof-up of Bhaskar Ganguly’s memento too. During the felicitation of footballers who have done our country proud — like Sunil Chhetri, Bhaichung Bhutia, IM Vijayan and PK Banerjee — former goalkeeper Bhaskar Ganguly’s memento was not presented to him on stage, despite his name being announced.

There were other red flags at the whole event and it was what people are deeming as a nightmare for the kids, those present there and the city. We just hope at the next game, things are organised better.

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