PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Football's world governing body, FIFA, on Friday gave organisers the all clear to use the Hasely Crawford Stadium for today's opening double-header of the Under-17 Women's World Cup.

The directive came less than 72 hours before the venue was scheduled to host a clash between Nigeria and defending champions Korea DPR at 3:00 pm, with hosts Trinidad and Tobago facing Chile three hours later in the feature game.

FIFA had expressed concerns over the playing surface, especially withrefurbishment and upgrading works to all five playing venues lagging behind schedule.

"We are pretty happy with them (pitches). We did some work in the last two three weeks with a consultant who was over in T&T helping the local people in terms of making the pitches up to standard and I think he gave a big support to them," Tatjana Haenni, FIFA Head of Women's competition, told a media briefing.

"He was also able to make the training pitches on average to good so we are pleased and I will say that everything with respect to the field looks good."

However, Haenni said concerns remained over the overall readiness of the venue. She said organisers still needed to make sure the lighting and IT production infrastructure was completed by Sunday's kickoff, along with the media areas.

She pointed out that with FIFA tournaments, all systems were expected to be in place at least three days before the kick-off but said T&T had missed that deadline.

"We have to make sure that all the necessary things are in place so we can guarantee a proper TV production which needs a certain quality and lighting in the stadium," said Haenni.

"We have been informed that people have been at the venue working tirelessly to make sure that this is completed on time.

"There are also other critical issues which are all stadium-related such as work to be done in the media areas; that is the mixed zone and press conference areas.

"However, we are convinced that everything will be completed on time and will work. They are just stadium-related so we have not discussed any kind of penalties being implemented."

Organisers have been working around the clock to ensure the readiness of all the venues for the 16-team tournament which will run until September 25.

The action will also get going in Tobago on Sunday at the Dwight Yorke Stadium with Germany facing Mexico from 4 pm and Korea Republic tacking South Africa from 7 pm.

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