LAHORE: Pakistan football team’s participation in the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Cup has become doubtful as the green shirts are yet to receive visas to visit India, which is hosting the biennial event, JEE News reported. reported on Sunday.
The SAFF tournament is scheduled to be held in Bengaluru from June 21 to July 4, and Pakistan was supposed to fly to India today (Sunday) at 11:30 am but sources said they were told by Indian officials to schedule their departure on Monday. change
The Pakistan football team is currently in Mauritius and was expected to get its visa to India by Saturday, but till the time of this report there was no progress.
This has put the Pakistani team in trouble. Sources say that the Indian High Commission in Mauritius has not yet received clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs to issue visas to the Pakistani team.
An official of the team has also contacted the Pakistan High Commission in India for assistance in visa matters.
Sources said there are fears that some players may get visas and others not as they will have to give clearance individually, which is a lengthy process.
He said that if Pakistan’s reservation for visiting India is rescheduled, it will cause a loss of Rs 13 million to the country.
Sources say that the next few hours are crucial and if the visas are not issued, Pakistan will have no option but to return home.
He said Saturday was the last day of the four-nation event in Mauritius and if the team stayed till Monday or Tuesday, Pakistan would also have to bear its boarding and lodging expenses.
Moreover, the issue also kept the Pakistani players under constant stress and they could not focus on their third match which the team lost 3-1 against Djibouti on Sunday.
Haroon Malik, chairman of the normalization committee appointed by FIFA, was contacted several times but did not receive the representative’s calls.
