Olympics Begin In
:
Days
:
Hours
:
Mins
 
Secs
Begin typing your search above and press return to search.

Football

Chaos over Cambodia's national anthem and flag disrupts India's match in AFC Asian Cup qualifiers

As the players walked onto the ground for the national anthems, the Cambodian footballers looked cluelessly standing in line, waiting for their anthem to be played in the stadium.

India take on Cambodia (Source: AIFF)
X

India take on Cambodia (Source: AIFF)

By

The Bridge Desk

Published: 8 Jun 2022 3:43 PM GMT

Chaos and complications set in before the kick-off of India's opening match at the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers against Cambodia in Grop D at the Yuva Bharati Krirangan in Salt Lake, Kolkata. As the players walked onto the ground for the national anthems, the Cambodian footballers looked cluelessly standing in line, waiting for their anthem to be played in the stadium.

As it happened, the announcer on the ground asked the audience to stand up for the national anthem of Cambodia but instead, the Indian national anthem was played. Soon after the anthem was over, Cambodians who were waiting for their anthem to be played were left silently standing on the ground as the anthem did not start on time. The visiting team had to wait for some time before the anthem was actually played in the stadium due to a probable technical glitch. It even caused a 10-minute delay for the match to kick-off. Many blamed the Indian Football Federation (AIFF) for humiliating Cambodia and called it shameful on social media.


Earlier today, Cambodia threatened to pull out of the AFC Asian Qualifiers tournament hours before their match against India after their national flag produced by the AIFF for the competition failed to meet the exact specification in terms of design and colour code. The FFC President Sao Sokha wrote to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and sought an apology from the AFC and AIFF, the refusal of which could have seen Cambodia pulling out of the tie later on Wednesday and the rest of the tournament. In response, The AFC almost issued an official letter stating that it is regretful of the entire issue and further added that graphics of national flags will be used for the competition.



Next Story