Maldives requests AIFF to change venue for friendly against India

The Maldives football team has requested the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to change the venue of their international friendly against India from Shillong, scheduled for March 19.

Maldives sought a venue from where it could have a convenient flight to the Philippines for its first match of the AFC Asian Cup Qualifier as it would provide them some time for a training session in the Philippines.

A senior official told TOI that Maldives wants to travel straight to the Philippines instead of heading back home. "Rather than returning home after the game, Maldives want to the Philippines straight from Shillong itself but there are no good flight connections available".

India and Maldives were set to play a friendly match at the JLN Stadium in Shillong to prepare for their coming AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers, where India is set to play Bangladesh at home and Maldives to travel to the Philippines.

The Indian team will start its qualifying campaign on March 25 against Bangladesh at the same venue. India has been drawn into Group C alongside Bangladesh, Hong Kong and Singapore.

AIFF will try to convince the Maldives to come to Shilling for this match as planned: "A new opponent is easier said than done. It’s difficult to find a team willing to travel to India at such short notice,” the official said.

However, there are chances that this friendly match might shift to Kolkata but there is no official confirmation of that to date.

The JLN Stadium will host the Indian matches for the first time since it got a facelift last year. It has also hosted a few Indian Super League (ISL) matches of Northeast United FC this season and has a capacity of around 15,000.