FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017: Stadiums face capacity cuts to meet FIFA safety standards

Salt Lake stadium in Kolkata will be able to accommodate just 66,687 fans. (Source: PTI)

In 1997, Kolkata’s Salt Lake Stadium recorded an attendance of 131,000 during a derby between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan. Twenty years later, when the venue will host the final of the Under-17 World Cup, it will be able to accommodate just 66,687 fans.

In Kochi, more than 60,000 routinely cram the aisles of the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium. However, only 29,200 will be allowed inside the stadium for the matches in the football-crazy state, which will host the marquee group stage fixture between Brazil and Spain.

The Fatorda Stadium in Goa, which originally held 25,000 people, reduced its capacity to 18,000 recently. For this tournament, however, only 16,000 will be allowed, making it smallest of the six stadiums for the tournament, capacity wise.

A senior Local Organising Committee (LOC) official said the reason for the sharp reduction in seating capacity across venues is a consequence of poor planning in case of emergencies. As per FIFA regulations, in case of an emergency the stadium should be evacuated ‘within eight minutes’. Most Indian stadiums do not meet this standard.

“Most Indian stadiums are designed decades ago and even when they were upgraded, such issues were not taken into consideration. These are global standards set by FIFA. This shows how lightly we took the crowd safety aspects,” the LOC official said.

The DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai and Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, both recently built, are the only two venues where the capacity hasn’t been drastically reduced due to safety norms. At the Delhi stadium, makeshift stairs have been built to ensure the crowd can safely enter the field of play in case of a mishap in the stands. All other venues have had to undergo major alterations.

Kochi has been one of the hardest hit host cities. For long, the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium used to brag about its 60,000 capacity and generally boisterous 60,000 spectators. But just before this World Cup, the FIFA stadium inspecting committee trimmed the capacity to 42,000, as two tiers had just one evacuation route and this was against the FIFA norms.

But just three days before Kochi’s first match, the authorities announced that only 29,200 seats will open for the public besides the 3,000 seats allocated for policemen, ground staff and volunteers. The official version is that state DGP, Loknath Behera, has earlier the made the decision due to “safety and security” reasons.

LOC tournament director Javier Ceppi, too, said it was due to security concerns. “Somebody sitting on the top tier wouldn’t be able to reach a safe space in eight minutes, which means only two tiers were accessible. We can only ensure the safe of people on these two tiers,” Ceppi said.

The FIFA hand has come down on Guwahati as well. They have said that the first row seats around the perimeter of stadium won’t be sold to public since they want it empty for evacuation. On either side of stadium there used to be cemented step-seats where people would squeeze in. That will not be the case anymore. FIFA has ensured it would be all bucket seats. The installation of bucket seats and first-row exclusion has meant the capacity has come down from 30,000 to 23000.

Utpal Ganguli, the secretary of the Indian Football Association (IFA) – West Bengal’s governing body – said the Salt Lake Stadium did not require new emergency exits but the existing ones had to be rejigged. “When the stadium was designed (in the early 1980s), the evacuation time for the whole stadium was kept at five minutes. So the Salt Lake Stadium didn’t require new emergency exits. Just that the old facilities needed to be rejigged,” Ganguli told The Indian Express.

A reduced capacity has affected the IFA and its affiliates, ticket-wise. “The IFA donor-members are entitled to get free tickets for all IFA-related events at the Salt Lake stadium. But this is not applicable to any other event. This is a FIFA tournament and we have been allotted only 28 per cent of our requisition for tickets (by FIFA). Accordingly, I have reduced the quota for the clubs and affiliates,” Ganguli said.