FIFA U-17 World Cup is scheduled to kick off in India on October 6 and with more than two months left for the mega-event, tournament director addressed the media as part of a media workshop conducted at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, in Kochi.
Speaking about ticket sales at the venue that arguably hosts the country's most vociferous crowd, Ceppi revealed that the sales have experienced a slight dip.
"We want Kochi to show support for all the teams. We haven't seen it yet. It's been surprising, we felt that we were gonna sell out completely. Brazil, Spain and Germany are playing in Kochi, we thought we were going to sell out in two hours, like what happened in Calcutta. People need to step up. Brazil vs Spain will be the biggest match played in India. There is nothing bigger than that. This is as big as it gets."
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Ceppi also confirmed that Kochi has fallen behind other venues when it came to ticket sales.
"We are a little bit surprised. We thought people would respond much more eagerly. I can tell you that people have responded more eagerly in Calcutta, Guwahati, Delhi. We thought that there will be a little bit more enthusiasm of having a world cup here." exclaimed a surprised Javier Ceppi.
Despite the dip in ticket sales, the tournament director stated his pleasure at the face-lift given to the stadium ahead of the World Cup.
"You can see the difference. Kudos to the greater Kochin development authority, state govt of Kerala. They've done a very important work in giving the face-lift that the stadium actually required. I don't know how you were able to play matches with that amount of people in this stadium and nothing happened. The stadium didn't have fire. The stadium had structural issues that are now getting corrected. It is more than 80% ready."
Ceppi has also given out a warning regarding illegal entry to the stadium on match-days. The FIFA tournament director however, did not deny the possibility of a ticket-store further away from the stadium.
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"Whatever is not bought before match-day is not bought. We are not some other type of tournaments where we just let people in. We care about people, their safety, security. No ticket sales at the stadium. You don't have a ticket, don't come to the stadium." stated Ceppi. "People will not be allowed in. We will create a further outer perimeter so that people cannot come in. That's why we're also closing the shops. We have requested to close the shops."
"Tickets will go out fast. I'm hoping all the people will start buying. If it's not sold out, we may open a ticket store far away from the stadium, down in MG road..nothing close. That's a 2-3% chance. We have spoken to Kochi police. They also don't want ticket sales on match-days."
Javier Ceppi also admitted a strategic failure in Goa, where the ticket sales were earlier confirmed to be extremely poor.
"Goa is an interesting case. In Goa, we are now having a different strategy. The online strategy did not work. We know Goans are passionate about football. Closer to the tournament, we will look at an on-ground strategy where people can go to the stadium and buy their tickets. At this point, Calcutta, Guwahati and Delhi are getting more sales." concluded Ceppi.