Mumbai City FC will play AFC Champions League home games in Pune

Mumbai City FC will place their home games for AFC Champions League at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi, Pune.

The venue change is due to the infrastructural setup at the Mumbai Football Arena. It makes the venue ineligible to host AFC Champions League games. Mumbai City FC will thus set up base in Pune for their three ‘home’ games in the Group Stage of the 2023-24 AFC Champions League.

Being the only top-division football club from the state of Maharashtra, the decision to adopt Pune as the club’s ‘home’ for the AFC Champions League was taken to make sure top-level continental footballing action stayed within Maharashtra - one of the steps towards Mumbai City FC’s vision of helping football grow in the state.

With a rich history of hosting elite football, the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex serves as the nearest football-specific stadium to Mumbai and allows Mumbai City FC to maintain proximity for fans to travel from Mumbai.

With Asia’s elite clubs participating in the continent’s premier tournament, boasting some of the biggest names in world football, Mumbai City FC aims to make top-level football more accessible to watch and drive a footballing culture across parts of Maharashtra.

Mumbai City FC will find out who their opponents are at the 2023-24 AFC Champions League Group Stage Draw, scheduled at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on August 24 at 1:30 PM IST.