Kolkata May 16 (IANS) The SAFF Championship football tournament is in hot water after India one of the participants requested the competition s organisers to postpone the meet by a few months due to the Indian Super League (ISL).
The 12th edition of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) meet -- played among south Asian nations including Bangladesh Bhutan India the Maldives Nepal Pakistan and Sri Lanka -- is scheduled to take place in Bangladesh this year from December 25.
But after India the defending champions and the most successful team of the biennial tournament put in a request for postponement stating their unavailability during the period the organisers are mulling pushing the meet to May.
India is saying that because of the Under-17 World Cup the ISL is starting late. So the ISL will end late and not in December. Then they said there can be a merger (of competing ISL and I-League) and thus the number of teams can increase SAFF General Secretary Anwarul Huq told IANS ahead of Mohun Bagan s AFC Cup Group E game against Bengaluru FC here on Wednesday.
It (SAFF Cup) was supposed to start on December 25 and end on January 5 or 6. India wants it to be shifted to May. They said because of the World Cup their scheduling has been delayed he added.
I got the letter a few days ago from Kushal Das (All India Footall Federation s General Secretary). Let me talk to the sponsors now whether they will agree or not Anwarul said.
Talks are on between the AIFF and its commercial and marketing partners IMG-R for expanding the ISL to 11 teams with the franchise-based tournament even inviting bids for more teams to take part.
The AIFF said it was hopeful that the SAFF would honour its request.
This being a special year with India hosting the Under-17 World Cup we have requested SAFF to organise their tournament in May next year. I hope they would honour our request AIFF Vice President Subrata Dutta told IANS.
India is also hosting the FIFA U-17 World Cup from October 6-28.
I have to also discuss it with our marketing agent. I am in touch with them. I have told them about the problem. They will now talk to Suzuki who are the sponsors of the tournament Anwarul said.
If India don t play they will not come forward. They want all teams to participate. Now we have seven teams and we will invite one more team. So it will be an eight-team affair he added.
India beat Afghanistan in the final 2-1 to bag their seventh title in 2015.
(Debayan Mukherjee can be contacted at debayan.m@ians.in)
--IANS
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SAFF Championship in hot water after India seeks postponement (Lead)
