Sub 17 World Cup: Why does the FPF accuse Legacy and how do you explain the delay in the works?

Peru is losing games and doing them with pure own goals. To the already ‘accustomed’ problems of Liga 1 and its multiple corrections by the TAS, now we can add that we cannot organize the Under 17 World Cup for the second time in a row.

Yesterday FIFA made official the withdrawal of the venue for the tournament that was to be held in our country in November due to, as stated in their official statement, “the country’s inability to meet its commitments and complete the necessary infrastructure to play the tournament ”.

There is no more than that. Beginning in April, none of the works that were to be carried out have begun. This is due to the fact that the rains caused by Cyclone Yaku and the arrival of the El Niño phenomenon caused a series of rains that mainly affected the northern departments of the country.

the jobs

From the Peruvian Football Federation (FPF) they point to Legacy 2019 as the unit in charge of the remodeling of stadiums and training venues. “The IPD finished making the diagnoses between July and August of last year. Legado had the entire second part of last year to be the executing unit”, Guillermo Echevarría, Development Manager of the FPF, tells us.

Legacy had to carry out the projected works, but only in the last months of 2022 did it present a work strategy. But on December 31, he changed director and Álvaro Castro took over. Legado’s new board of directors analyzed the strategy left by their predecessors and determined that they were not going to make it to the World Cup on time. “They were projected for the fortnight of November, when the World Cup had already started,” sources close to the Legacy organization told us.

For this reason, as the Legacy itself announced on February 3, they presented a new strategy in order to have the works by October. The support of regional governments was sought and work since March. However, the rains began and everything was paralyzed.

“Seven months after the World Cup, there were no works and even the processes to award them were not completed either,” Echevarría tells us.

From Legado they assure us that they could not work because the rains affected the work, especially in the Piura and Chiclayo stadiums. “There were already ongoing processes and coordination with the GORE. It was not incapacity, but that it would have been irresponsible to advance because of the rains”, they tell us from the executing unit.

positions

Given the weather situation, the Ministry of Education proposed to FIFA, through the FPF, that the tournament be held only in Lima and Callao, but also requested that the world soccer entity assume some of the costs of the event, which locally had a budget of 300 million soles. This was not approved by FIFA.

“I understand that FIFA has decided to prioritize the issue of going to provincial cities and we have priorities. And the priority at this time is to attend to the north of the country”, the Minister of Education, Óscar Becerra, stated in this regard.

The concrete thing is that, in four years, Peru has failed in its attempt to host the Under 17 World Cup. In 2019 we were only able to hold the South American Cup, but the World Cup was taken away from us and taken to Brazil. In 2021 it could not be carried out due to the pandemic and it was moved to 2023. The rains and organizational problems have once again cut off our World Cup illusion. Will there be a new opportunity?

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