Courtesy: Nation Multimedia


FIFA delays by a day futsal arena approval

October 30, 2012

FIFA officials have delayed until tomorrow a decision on whether to approve the multi-million stadium, Bangkok Futsal Arena, for use at the upcoming Futsal World Cup.

World soccer's governing body, which also has futsal in its portfolio, was originally due to make a decision on whether to grant approval to the Arena for use in the 24-team tournament to be held from November 1-18 in Bangkok and Nakhon Ratchasima.

The delay in construction meant the Arena, built at a cost of Bt1.3 billion, would be available for the use only in the later stages of the event, pending FIFA's approval.

The unavailability of the stadium for the preliminary round already has caused havoc to the schedule, with all of the Group A fixtures featuring hosts Thailand being switched to another venue.

Deputy Bangkok governor Thaya Theepsuwan, whose office was responsible for the building of the stadium, yesterday brought Fifa delegates led by Jaime Yarza, FIFA's senior manager of Futsal and Beach Soccer Competitions, to inspect the venue situated in Nong Chok district on the outskirts of the capital.

After a meeting with Fifa officials at the end of the inspection, Thaya revealed that they would inspect the venue again today before making a decision on whether to approve the stadium the following day.

"They [FIFA] saw a lot of progress today. But, they wanted to have more monitor screens for the media as well as the rest rooms for the athletes. They'll inspect the venue again tomorrow for a report and then decide whether to approve it," said Thaya.

Regarding the more pressing concern of the playing surface, which needed to be imported from the United States, Thaya said it would arrive on Thursday and laying of the turf could be finished not later than next Tuesday.

"We'll test the stadium tomorrow by holding an exhibition match between Bangkok officials led by the governor Sukhumbhand Pari-batra and the media. It'll be a big test of everything from public address system to monitor screens.

"The playing surface we use for tomorrow's fixture is only a temporary one. We used it just for the test and if it still doesn't meet FIFA standards, we could remove it within two hours. Then, we'll replace it with the one of FIFA quality that would arrive on Thursday.

"We could finish laying the floor not later than next Tuesday, in time for the stadium to be available for the semi-final fixtures and the final," said Thaya.






Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com