India vs Bahrain LIVE: The Indian football team are up for a match against hosts Bahrain for the first of the two international friendlies that they will play in Bahrain. However, the All India Football Federation has announced that the Blue Tigers’ matches against Bahrain and Belarus won’t be telecast in India as Bahrain has decided not to produce friendly matches. Therefore AIFF has revealed a statement informing the unfortunate for the Indian football fans. Follow all the Indian Football updates only on InsideSport.IN
Going through the motions ahead of the Bahrain 🇧🇭 test 🙌#BackTheBlue 💙 #BlueTigers 🐯 #IndianFootball ⚽ pic.twitter.com/t4w55Pym4l
— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) March 22, 2022
“Despite our best efforts in working with the Bahrain FA to live telecast and stream the International Friendlies against Bahrain and Belarus, owing to lack of support & subsequent technical feasibility, it won’t be possible to telecast the matches in India,” AIFF said in their statement.
“The broadcast production of the two matches lie with the host Federation. The AIFF stays committed to provide necessary exposure for the National team as part of the preparation for the final round of the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers,” AIFF added in their statement.
The Blue Tigers will face hosts, Bahrain first on 23rd March followed by another friendly match against Belarus on 26th March. Head coach Igor Stimac has told that he wants his team to play bravely against two higher-ranked teams. He wants them to show character and not go down without fighting as it will give him a great opportunity to assess the players ahead of AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers.
India will be playing their AFC Asian Cup 2023 Qualifiers matches in Kolkata in June and will be looking to play more friendlies against different teams to be well prepared for the challenges. The Blue Tigers are drawn in Group D along with Hong Kong, Cambodia and Afghanistan. Despite being the highest-ranked team in their group, Igor Stimac feels that more than rankings performances on pitch matter more and there his team needs to improve before taking on the important qualifiers.