India's Caribbean Tour is Officially Approved by FIFA

Contrary to the reports in the media, that said that the proposed India’s tour of the Caribbean is an unofficial tournament and would do no good to India’s raking even if they manage to win, the fact is that the tournament is officially approved by FIFA as an international friendly.

Screenshot of fifa.com

FIFA’s official website shows the match against Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago on August 17 and 21 respectively as officially approved, while the three other matches have no mention in it. It was earlier reported that AIFF was contemplating to make the tour a real one where Colaco’s boys would engage the national side of Barbados, Guyana, Suriname and Bahamas along with Trinidad and Tobago in a five match series.

However, with the matches being played on non FIFA match day, most of the clubs refused to release their players, citing that the friendlies have no FIFA approval and would not help India garner valuable points to climb up the World Ranking.

But Colaco this time need to be careful with his substitutions, as making more than six substitutions will not result in India getting any points. as according to FIFA directives only up to 6 substitutions are permitted in international friendlies.

With two matches granted the official friendly status, the fate of the other three still remains a mystery. It’s still uncertain who India will play in the three matches. Hope they play a national team and manage to get the official status of a ‘FIFA friendly match’.