New Delhi: A rather unreasonable demand of rent by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) for the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium for the 2017 U-17 World Cup has jeopardised Delhi’s chances of hosting matches in the prestigious meet.

So much so, even the world body Fifa, is upset by the SAI demand and has asked the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to renegotiate the deal with the custodians of the stadium.

In a letter to the AIFF, the director of the Nehru Stadium informed that federation would be charged Rs. five lakh on each match day for the facility. On non-match days, a rent of Rs. 1.25 lakh per day would be charged.

“This is an absurd demand,” said a senior official of the AIFF. “As per our conservative estimates, we might have to shell out nearly Rs. 70 lakh towards the rent of the Nehru Stadium for a month. This would be a huge blow since we have to pay rent for stadiums in other five centres also,” he added.

The SAI director general, Jiji Thompson, strongly defended the decision saying a steep hike in the rent was necessary for the maintenance of the stadium.

“We have not made any exception for the football federation… We have hiked the rent of all the five SAI stadiums in Delhi. We annually need Rs. 70 crore for maintenance and the government sanctions only Rs. 38 crore.”