Football: India forced to cancel Philippines and Malaysia friendlies

The Indian national football team will play the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championships which have been rescheduled to September 1 to 11 in Kathmandu, thereby forcing the AIFF to cancel two international friendlies for Team India which they had organised earlier.

India were earlier scheduled to play two away ties on FIFA international match dates against the Philippines on September 6 and against Malaysia on September 10.

Originally, the SAFF Cup had been planned to be played in late-September/early-October, three weeks later than now.

But with clubs from India and the Maldives making it to the AFC Cup quarter finals, SAFF organisers were compelled to bring the tournament ahead by three weeks, once more highlighting the problems of the Asian football calendar, which isn’t always in-sync with the rest of the world.

AIFF general secretary Kushal Das told agencies, “It is unfortunate but then we had no option.”

“Due to a cramped Asian calendar we couldn’t postpone the SAFF Cup. The option of moving the SAFF Cup was explored but a few teams from other countries are playing in the AFC Cup,” he added.

The AIFF now hopes to finalise a friendly against Tajikistan on August 14.