The Pakistan Football team have finally been issued visas to travel to India and participate in the SAFF Championship in Bengaluru. However, there's a catch: the team may land in Bengaluru only hours before their opening match against India on June 21.
The Pakistan team, currently in Mauritius, was to leave for India on June 18 after playing in a Four Nations tournament. But a delay in administrative processes - first the issuance of the No-Objection Certificate from the Pakistan Sports Board and then the visas from the Indian government - saw them miss their flight on Sunday.
Hasnain Haider, their team manager, said the team will fly to India tomorrow. However, the journey seems complicated. The team's port of entry is Mumbai, so they will first fly from Mauritius to Mumbai, and then board a flight to Bengaluru.
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- Pakistan Football Federation (@TheRealPFF) June 19, 2023
"We plan to travel tomorrow. We're looking for a morning flight, which would be ideal. However, if we take an evening flight then we will reach Mumbai at around 1 am on the morning of June 21. Since there are no flights that early in the morning, we might have to wait until 5 am to take a flight to Bengaluru. We would essentially land in Bengaluru around 8 am," Haider told ESPN.
That puts the team in an unfavourable position because the players will have less than 12 hours to mentally and physically recover from their 14-plus-hour journey. That would also leave them with no time to acclimatize to the conditions at Bengaluru.
"The team trained this morning and is ready to leave for India. We've had our bags packed for the last two days. We might train tomorrow morning if we have an evening flight," added Haider. That would be their last training session before their match-up against hosts India, who won the Intercontinental Cup on Sunday.
ESPN has learnt that the rescheduling of the game has been discussed, but is unlikely. "No formal request has been made to reschedule the game. Even if one is made, the decision on that will be taken by SAFF," said a top source.
Pakistan come into the SAFF Championship on the back of four successive losses. June 21 will mark the first football game between India and Pakistan since September 2018, when India rode on Manvir Singh's brace to beat Pakistan 3-1 in the semifinal of the SAFF Championship.
Pakistan begin their campaign against defending SAFF champions India on June 21, then take on Kuwait on June 24 before facing Nepal on June 27.