Indian visas have been issued to Pakistan team for participating in the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship.
After a two-day delay, the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Normalisation Committee (NC) got confirmation of visa approval. Pakistan team will now fly to India via the first available flight.
The management of Pakistan Football team had applied for visas at the Indian embassy in Mauritius and were expecting the process to be completed latest by Saturday. However, administrative delays resulted in delay in issuance of visas to Pakistan Football team.
Due to the delay in issuing the visas, the team could not leave for India as per schedule on Sunday.
A source in PFF confirmed that the operation department is working to find best possible options to make travel arrangements.
The source confirmed that option to reschedule the much-anticipated Pakistan vs India game in SAFF Cup can be used only if Pakistan team fails to reach Bangalore by Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, 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'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.