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The long wait of the India men’s under-23 and women’s national football teams to reach the 2014 Asian Games venue in Incheon continues as they would only land in South Korea on Saturday, September 13, Sportskeeda can reveal.
After cancelling flights three times, the AIFF were initially planning to book Friday’s tickets for the two football teams from Shanghai to Incheon but since India’s DRM (Delegates Registration Meeting) only took place on Friday, the two teams will now be reaching South Korea on Saturday morning.
That will be bad news for the women’s team in particular as they would be reaching South Korea just 24 hours before their opening game against Maldives. It remains to be seen whether they are able to have any training session in South Korea before that first match on Sunday.
“Ideally we would have wanted the teams to reach South Korea today but this was completely out of our hands as the DRM only took place today. Initially the DRM was scheduled for September 8 but the football teams were only cleared for the tournament on September 9 and thus the meeting was rescheduled.
“Until the DRM takes place, the players are not allowed in the Games village so we couldn’t have taken the risk of sending out the teams today. They will be taking separate flights at around 9am local time from Shanghai on Saturday. Both teams have been training in Shanghai so hopefully reaching this late wouldn’t be much of a problem,” an AIFF official told Sportskeeda on Friday evening.
After raising doubts initially, the two football teams were eventually cleared to participate at government cost but this delay in reaching South Korea won’t be ideal for their preparations.
Following their opener against Maldives, the women then face hosts South Korea on September 17 and Thailand on September 21. Three nations from this group will advance to the quarter-finals.
The men’s under-23 side play their first match against UAE on September 15 while their final group game is against Jordan on September 22. Two teams from this group will progress to the round of 16.
