FIFA under-17 trophy tour to start on Aug 17

The tour of FIFA Under-17 World Cup Trophy, across the six hosts cities, will take place from August 17-September 26, the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) announced on Monday. The tour will begin from New Delhi, where India are playing their group matches, and will cover almost 9,000 km over a period of 40 days.

Fans will be able to see the official winner’s trophy of the FIFA U-17 World Cup in New Delhi (August 17-22), Guwahati (August 24-29), Kolkata (August 31 to September 5), Mumbai (September 6-10), Goa (September14-19) and Kochi (September 21-26).

 “The trophy experience will mark the last phase of our event promotion and it is very important, because it will give the fans around the country the opportunity to get up close to the same official winner’s trophy that the captain of the winning team of the FIFA U-17 World Cup will be lifting on October 28 in Kolkata. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance and we hope that people can come in large numbers to the display locations in the host cities,” chairman of the LOC Praful Patel said.

FIFA Chief Commercial Officer Philippe Le Floc'h said: “This initiative is about bringing the excitement of the FIFA U-17 World Cup Trophy experience closer to India’s fans in the run up to this milestone competition. The trophy embodies both the dreams of the best U-17 players in the world and those of millions of Indian fans.” India will be hosting its first FIFA tournament from October 6 to 28.