Kochi to host Palestine friendly; AIFF grant window for new football league

The international friendly between India and Palestine, which was scheduled to take place in Guwahati, will be played in Kochi on February 6 due to the poor pitch condition at Guwahati’s Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium.

It will be India’s first international match at Kochi’s Nehru Stadium since the 1-5 defeat to Oman in 2004 in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers. Palestine are placed 14 spots above India at 152nd in the FIFA Rankings.

The decision was taken by the AIFF executive committee in New Delhi on Tuesday, and among other key decisions it was confirmed that this season’s I-League second division would be held in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, although it’s still not clear how many teams will qualify for the I-League, as the federation has also welcomed bids from two new clubs to enter directly into the top tier.

The second division will start after the completion of the Santosh Trophy, which is taking place in Uttar Pradesh and Kerala, with the final on March 3.

Jamshedpur will be hosting this year’s U-20 I-League, and it will kick off in the first week of March.

An IPL-style league?

A key decision of the meeting was to grant a window in the 2013-14 season for a new tournament to be organised by commercial partners IMG-R during that period. For a while now, there have been discussions between the federation and its commercial partners to come up with a new football league similar to IP,L and looks like it could happen next year.