AFC Cup cancellation: a decision to be reached on Thursday

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC)’s Competition’s Committee is set to announce a decision regarding the cancellation of AFC Cup, on Thursday.

AFC Cup matches were called off during March due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and since then the centralized groups stage matches had been scheduled to kick off in October. Under the preparations, matches in the group stage of the South Asian zone were scheduled to be held in the Maldives.

At a time the chances are slim for the AFC Cup to be hosted at all this year, sources report that the major concern leans towards the lack of hosts for most of the group stage matches, as many countries do not wish to host the matches at a time the globe is locked in a battle with the new strand of coronavirus.

Sources have also reported that the Competition’s Committee will be holding an official meeting on Thursday to reach a decision on calling off the tournament.

Further, there are also high chances for AFC Champions League to be cancelled, despite AFC having assured that they will put in their best efforts to make sure the competitions proceed, uninterruptedly.

Very recently, the Football Association of Maldives (FAM)’s President, Bassam Adeel Jaleel had revealed that the chances are high for the tournament to get called off.

Maldives secured the bid to host AFC Cup Group E matches and the matches were scheduled to kick off on October 23, through November 4. Maldives clubs Maziya Sports and Recreation as well as TC Sports are scheduled to join the matches alongside Bashundhara Kings and Chennai City.

In a previous group stage, Maziya and TC had competed against Bangladesh and India on March 12.

TC lost to Bashundhara Kings 5-1 while Maziya tied with Chennai City FC 2-2.