KARACHI: The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) has requested South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) to reschedule the upcoming match between Pakistan and India since the former will touch down in Bengaluru only 12 hours before the clash on Wednesday.
The Pakistan team’s arrival in India has been delayed due to late issuance of visas and flight schedule.
The Pakistan team, which is currently in Mauritius, will reach Bengaluru tomorrow morning which would make it difficult for the team to play the match on the same day.
Two different carriers, Air India and Air Mauritius, will take Pakistan team from Mauritius to Mumbai. Both will depart at 5:20pm today and land at 1:00am tomorrow.
Pakistan team will then take the 6:00am flight from Mumbai to Bengaluru.
Sources also revealed that the PFF was unable to find 32 seats on the same flight from Mauritius, which meant that they are leaving for India in two separate flights.
Sources also revealed that the SAFF will discuss the matter with other teams and the tournament’s commercial partners before taking the decision on rescheduling the match.
Earlier, the SAFF General Secretary Anwarul Haque confirmed that the upcoming match between Pakistan and India can’t be rescheduled.
While speaking to News9 Sports, Haq also said that matches of the Pakistan team could be cancelled if they don’t arrive in time for the tournament.
“The match is on Wednesday. Hopefully, they can come by Monday,” Haq said on Sunday.
“The match can’t be rescheduled. It is out of the question because then it would mean rescheduling of the other matches, which is impossible.
“In case they can’t come, we have to cancel Pakistan’s matches.”
It must be noted that the Pakistan team was scheduled to fly for India from Mauritius, where they participated in a four-nation tournament recently, on Sunday at 11:30 am but they were told by the Indian authorities to reschedule their departure and delay it until Monday.
The SAFF Championship will run from June 21- July 4 with India defending their title.
Pakistan will be playing on Indian soil for the first time since 2014.
Pakistan's schedule in SAFF Championship
June 21 - India
June 24 - Kuwait
June 27 - Nepal
Faizan Lakhani Faizan Lakhani is Deputy Editor (Sports) at Geo News.