FIFA U-17 World Cup tournament director Javier Ceppi says 'rat' comments did not refer to showpiece event

New Delhi: FIFA Under-17 World Cup tournament director Javier Ceppi on Wednesday clarified that he never referred to the showpiece event India hosted last year while commenting that he witnessed “players changing at dressing rooms next to rats”.

At an event in New Delhi on Tuesday, he had rued the Indian system and said “there were events where players are changing next to rats”.

Ceppi said he was referring to some other tournaments while making the comment and not the FIFA U-17 World Cup which the country hosted from 6-28 October last year across six cities.

“I was not referring to the U-17 World Cup when talking about rats in the dressing rooms.

I was referring to the situations I have seen in other events in India,” Ceppi said in a statement to PTI.

As tournament director, Chilean Ceppi played a big role in India hosting a successful U-17 World Cup which went into record books in terms of number of spectators who turned up to watch the matches as well as the number of goals scored on the field.