Sub-20 World Cup in Argentina: FIFA arrives in the country to inspect eight venues one month after the start of the tournament

The process advances more slowly than the anxieties would like, but it advances at a steady pace. He Sub 20 world will start in 40 days in Argentina, even though FIFA has not yet published the expected official bulletin confirming that the venue that was from Indonesia will move to South America. First you will have to comply with all the bureaucratic procedures that the tournament requires. In the middle of this week, a delegation from the organization that brings together soccer will arrive in the country to carry out a technical inspection in each of the eight proposed venues.

At this time, the Diego Armando Maradona Unique Stadium of At payment It will be a kind of epicenter of the most important parties if there is no change of plans. At least, in the heads of the authorities there is the idea that it hosts the opening match and the final, something that already happened with the Vélez stadium in the 2001 World Cup.

But there are still a few steps to go. First, FIFA officials plan to, for example, inspect the Bicentennial Stadium of San Juan next Thursday and Malvinas Argentinas Stadium of Mendoza on Friday. They will also go through those hours for the Unique Stadium Mothers of Cities of Santiago del Esterohe Mario Alberto Kempes of Córdobahe La Pedrera Stadium of saint Louishe Father Martearena Stadium of Salta and the Centennial Stadium of resistance in Chaco.

These are the eight stadiums that were finally on the table, beyond the fact that the chance of having competition in the Most Monumental Stadium of River Plate or the Joseph Amalfitani of Liniers. Everything indicates that there will be no formal activity in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, a logical approach taking into account that for that date the agenda will be full of national football -first and promotion- and international in the area. The organizational scheme demanded a greater demand for that enormous urban nucleus. Both FIFA and AFA evaluated the possibilities, but chose to get closer to the regulation that requires having the venues free from 15 days before the tournament and up to 1 day after.

It is true that in Mendoza, Santiago del Estero, Córdoba and Chaco their stadiums are eventually affected by matches involving Godoy Cruz, Central Córdoba, Talleres or Sarmiento, to name a few, but it must be taken into account that it would be much easier organizationally to transfer the two or three games that these teams will play for the local tournament during the Under 20 World Cup. If one takes into account, they are all states linked to the state, which have greater flexibility when it comes to accommodating agendas than those of a club .

He thumbs down will be the property of FIFA. The body will be in charge of raising or lowering the thumb to discard, a priori, two venues to polish up to six the total number of venues that will host the World Cup. Although no one rules out that the interests of each of the proposed provinces play their part to try to leave a good image and be elected.

The delegations of this style that are in charge of verifying technical issues of the venues are usually led by a high-ranking FIFA employee and seconded by a specialist in each area to be able to analyze each fundamental aspect in detail. Something is clear here: a World Cup is normally organized two years in advance, with a local committee previously prepared for the situation that periodically reviews the aspects. Here they must take steps and take into account the emergency context. These officials who will arrive will be in charge of checking, mainly, three aspects: hotels, training centers and the complete infrastructure of the stadiums.

The hermetism is still maintained in each of the legs involved. They prefer to keep under lock and key the project that AFA transferred to FIFA. But if everything stays on the normal tracks, the Argentine Sub 20 team led by Javier Mascherano will open the World Cup on Saturday May 20 in La Plata? against the rival who touches him in the draw. Those optimists who spoke that the previous week would define everything and FIFA would officially publish the statement, now hope to have that paper in their hands at the beginning of next week after this inspection at the venues.

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