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Just a day after Blackburn Rovers raised uncertainty over their proposed multiple city tour of India following the serial blast in Mumbai, the Western India Football Federation (WIFA) said the match is on and it has received the necessary NOCs from the concerned departments.
English Premier League side Blackburn are scheduled to play Pune FC in a friendly match at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune, the home of their owners, Venky’s, on July 22.
Earlier a statement from the office of Paul Agnew — press officer of Blackburn Rover stated, “The Blackburn Rovers officials have a meeting scheduled with the foreign office to check on safety issues. Only after that meeting will it be known whether Blackburn will continue with the tour.”
AIFF to be on the safe side if any untoward incident takes place, made it clear that they themselves have no objection to the friendly match being played but asked the organizers to obtain the required clearance from the Union sports ministry and the state government.
“Everything is on track. WIFA has not received any intimation of cancellation. All the necessary NOCs (No Objection Certificates) have been received (from union sports ministry, police) as all the concerned security personnel are supposed to be kept in loop for conducting a match,” said WIFA CEO Henry Menezes.
Menezes further added that security will be taken care of by the Pune District Football Association, the host venue, which comes under the ambit of WIFA.
