ISL 2017: FIFA U-17 World Cup director tweets image of 'fixed' JLN Stadium pitch after Salman Khan concert

What’s the story?

Javier Ceppi, the tournament director of the U-17 FIFA World Cup tweeted a picture of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium after the concert hosted by Salman Khan, stating that the ground is fine to play football on and the damage caused has been corrected.

In his tweet, he further mentioned that his team worked on the pitch six months prior to the U-17 World Cup in order to sustain its proper condition even after heavy usage and that their hard work bore fruit.

This is how JLN pitch is looking today post concert. When we worked on the pitch for 6 months before #FIFAU17WC, we built the foundation to ensure that the ground was going to be able to sustain heavy usage and even concerts. Seems like it worked pic.twitter.com/shF2aLoxHQ

— Javier Ceppi (@JavierCeppi) December 12, 2017

In case you didn't know

The stadium hosted India’s games at the recently concluded U-17 World Cup and now is the home ground for ISL side Delhi Dynamos.

Most recently though, it witnessed a mega-event featuring Salman Khan on Sunday as a part of his DA-BANGG tour and as expected, it was full. However, in the process, the pitch got damaged in certain areas, especially on the sidelines.

Images went viral on social media showing the extent of the damage caused, with many users slamming the hosting of an event in the middle of the football season.

The heart of the matter

The U-17 World Cup had a total of six stadiums host matches and all of them were restructured and renovated to meet the required standards.

The JLN stadium is one of the finest in India and Ceppi's tweet shows that his team's hard work did not go in vain as the condition of the turf looks good.

What’s next?

The Dynamos face off against FC Goa later this week and while there were concerns about the pitch being ready in time, they now seem to have been cleared and the match will go on as expected.

Author’s take

It is great to see that the effort put in before the U-17 World Cup bear fruit as the ground staff has been able to get the pitch back to normal.