NEW DELHI: The executive committee of the All India Football Federation has decided to withdraw its bid to host the AFC Asian Cup 2027.
As per the strategic Roadmap of the federation, which will be announced later this month, the AIFF management thinks the hosting of big events doesn’t fit into the federation’s strategic priorities.
Following India’s withdrawal, Saudi Arabia is the sole remaining bidder to host the continental tournament, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) confirmed on Monday.
“Our current focus is building the foundations of proper footballing structure before thinking of hosting bigger events like the AFC Asian Cup,” said the AIFF executive committee in a statement.
AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey said, “India has always been a wonderful and efficient host to big tournaments, which was amply demonstrated in the recently concluded FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup. However, the EC has decided that the overall strategy of the Federation currently remains on focusing on the fundamental goals to strengthen our football at every level from grassroots to youth development. At the same time, we must also strengthen our stakeholders, especially the state associations and work closely with the clubs to bring about a change in every aspect of football at the domestic level. All such aspects will truly be implemented when the Roadmap is announced later this month.”
AIFF secretary general Shaji Prabhakaran added, “Our strategy is very simple. We must focus on developing the game on a priority basis, before planning to host major international competitions. Hosting competitions requires big resources and sometimes encourages the tendency to take the major issues away from our focus. Right now, our focus should be to take Indian football forward together.”
In 2020, India submitted its bid for hosting the 2027 AFC Asian Cup in 2027. India had also joined the race for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, alongside Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea, but pulled out early in October 2018. Later, Thailand and South Korea also pulled out leaving China the sole country to host the 2023 tournament. But it will now be played in Qatar after China also withdrew as host. Qatar, which is hosting the ongoing FIFA World Cup, has already staged the Asian Cup twice.
India has featured four times in the AFC Asian Cup and its best performance was a runner-up finish in 1964 when it was a round-robin tournament without a final and competed among just four teams.
