NEW DELHI: All India Football Federation President Praful Patel on Wednesday said that the rescheduling of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in February will not affect the host team's preparations as it was a short postponement of three months.
“The new dates - February 17 – March 7, 2021 - for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup have been announced after the event was earlier postponed from November. Fortunately, it’s not been a long postponement,” Patel stated. “I feel the postponement won’t affect the preparation of our team. We were getting ready keeping November (the earlier window) in mind. But we are on track for the event, both from the organisation side, and also the team’s perspective.
Patel, who chaired the AIFF executive committee which met online on Wednesday, added, “I am in constant touch with FIFA and AFC and everyone is waiting for footballing activities to resume soon.”
Meanwhile, the committee condoled the demises of PK Banerjee, Chuni Goswami, and Abdul Latif, Ashok Chatterjee, and Rajendra Mohan, and observed a minute’s silence as a mark of respect for the departed souls.
Patel noted: “It’s so sad that we have lost legends to whom Indian Football owes a lot. I put on record my greatest appreciation and respect to the contribution made by these legendary footballers. We hope their play and passion for the game will continue to guide and inspire footballers for now and for the future.
“I would have been honoured to go to Kolkata to pay my last respects for Padma Shris – PK-da, and Chuni-da. But due to the prevailing unusual circumstances we could not pay our due respect.”
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