U-17 World Cup officials condemn black marketing incident

Kolkata, Oct 15 (IANS)   The Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the FIFA U-17 World Cup on Sunday condemned the incident where three volunteers were among those held by the police for selling tickets in the black market.

"We don't like such kind of incidents. We are working extremely hard to avoid such incidents. From a personal point of view, it hurts," tournament director Javier Ceppi told reporters here.

While New Caledonia were playing Japan in a Group E match at the Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Krirangan on Saturday, the Bidhannagar police nabbed seven persons, including three volunteers, selling tickets at high prices.

Some of those detained were allegedly found in an inebriated state.

Project director Joy Bhattacharjya said they stripped the three accused volunteers off their accreditation and stressed on the fact that for "two-three" rotten apples, the effort put in by the other 250 volunteers should not go down the drain.

"We were informed by the police about the incident. The first thing we had to do was to ascertain the situation and it seemed very clear that whatever was against them was binding. We did what was necessary on our part and asked the police to do what was necessary on their part.

"From our part, we have taken away their accreditation and their uniforms. When two-three guys do something like that, it spoils the 250 other volunteers who are doing a fantastic job," he said.