Maldives to host 2014 AFC Challenge Cup, India's bid not accepted

The Asian Football Confederation’s Competitions Committee today decided to award Maldives the hosting rights of the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup, which is a qualification tournament for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup for the second tier nations in Asia. The other accepted bid had come in from the Philippines, while the Indian bid was, for unknown reasons, not part of the deliberations about the 2014 hosts of the AFC Challenge Cup. It is unclear if the AIFF did not hand in a proper bid or if there was a reason for the AFC not to accept India’s bid.

The Competitions Committee, under the chairmanship of the AFC Vice-President Yousuf Al Serkal from the United Arab Emirates, ratified the decision of the Organising Committee for AFC President’s Cup and AFC Challenge Cup to appoint Maldives as a host of the next edition of this eight-team Finals.

The qualifiers for the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup would be played in February/March 2013 with the hosts Maldives now exempted from the qualifiers. For India, the qualifiers and then the final round stay the only chance to make it to the finals of the 2015 AFC Asian Cup to be played in Australia.