Organisers blame facility owners for mismanagement at JLN Stadium

New Delhi, Oct 7 (IANS)  The Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the FIFA U-17 World Cup on Thursday blamed the facility owners of the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium for the mismanagement of some facilities on the opening day.

Around 27,000 kids who were brought in with free tickets by the organisers on Friday, fought for basic amenities like water. The bottles were not allowed inside the stadium and thus the children were made to suffer.

The other spectators also suffered as there was no water in the toilets as well.

Apart from this, the food packets arrived late because of tight security arrangements.

"We know that there were issues with the distribution of water for the first match day of the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 in New Delhi. There was a provision made by the stadium, as providing drinking water is the responsibility of the facility owner, but there was a lapse on the distribution," an official statement from the LOC said. 

"We will be working as hard as possible with all facility owners to ensure that drinking water is readily available for all spectators from here on," it added.