Public Interest Watches U-17 World Cup At Stadium Claimed High, Surabaya Most Spectators

Supporters of the Indonesian national team provide support for the 2023 U-17 World Cup Group A preliminary match against Morocco at Gelora Bung Tomo Stadium (GBT), Surabaya, East Java (ANTARA PHOTO/Aditya Pradana Putra/aww.)

SURABAYA - Head of Marketing and Commercial LOC World Cup U-17 2023 Marsal Masita stated that the interest of the Indonesian people in watching the U-17 World Cup was so great, especially in the city of Surabaya.

From the data he got, every match of the U-17 Indonesian national team was almost always filled with spectators at the stadium, as well as other matches.

"Surabaya is the city that has the most spectators from the four organizing cities. But just for information, as of today, 400 thousand people have watched the U-17 World Cup from four cities," said Marsal Masita, quoted by ANTARA, Saturday, November 18.

According to him, this was extraordinary because the match was not the senior World Cup, but the U-17.

"What I want to emphasize is that this is not a senior World Cup, nor is it the U-20 World Cup. This is the lowest age of the FIFA competition," he said.

Marsal explained that Surabaya would certainly be the contributor to the highest number of spectators because Indonesia played at the Gelora Bung Tomo Stadium in Surabaya.

"We have to be proud and Surabaya will make the biggest contribution with 400 thousand. This figure continues to increase because there are still group matches that have not been played," he said.

According to the summary data of the matches issued by FIFA, the total audience present at the Surabaya GBT Stadium during the group stage was 103,399 people.

With details, in the opening match between Morocco and Panama, 13,347 spectators were attended and Indonesia's match against Ecuador was 30,583.

Then, on the second day of the match between Morocco and Ecuador attended by spectators 5,498, while Indonesia against Panama was 17,239.

Furthermore, on the third day, Canada and Mali were attended by 10,269 spectators, and Indonesia's decisive match against Morocco was 26,454 spectators.

Currently, Garuda Muda players have finished the Group A match and are ranked third behind Morocco and Ecuador.

Indonesia's chances still exist, the condition is that South Korea and Mexico do not win in the last match. That way, the two teams from other groups cannot shift Indonesia's position in the third-placed team standings.

Marsal is optimistic that the public interest will continue to increase when the U-17 World Cup enters the knockout phase, because there are still many interesting game shows from teams that will compete later.

Even if Indonesia doesn't qualify, we need more effort. We hope that the interest will continue because we also want to see the actions of all U-17 teams from around the world," he said.

"We believe we should hope that the numbers don't fall in the last 16 games onwards," he said.