NEW DELHI: Former I-League champions Minerva Punjab FC will play its remaining two AFC Cup home matches – against Chennaiyin FC on June 19 and Abahani Dhaka on June 26 – at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati.
Minerva were also in talks with the Sports Authority of India for the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi and with the West Bengal state government for the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata, but exorbitant rents were a dampener for the Chandigarh-based side.
The club finally zeroed in on the the home ground of Indian Super League club NorthEast United FC this week.
Minerva will play close to Rs 400,000 to host both the matches, a sharp contrast from the Rs 2.2 million fee the other stadia were demanding per game, Sportstar reports.
ISL side Jamshedpur FC had also agreed to allow Minerva to use the JRD Tata Sports Complex and club owner Ranjit Bajaj told Goal.com he is ‘thankful to the Tata Group for their generous gesture.’
“We will be playing our two remaining home matches at Guwahati. We don’t require an inspection because the venue was used as a home stadium by Aizawl FC for the AFC Cup last year,” Bajaj confirmed to Sportstar on Wednesday.
The stadium also previously hosted group stage matches during the 2017 FIFA U-17 men’s World Cup.
Minerva is currently third in Group E of the AFC Cup after playing out three successive draws against Chennaiyin FC, Bangladesh’s Abahani Dhaka, and Nepal’s Manang Marshyangdi Club.
The side will next travel to Nepal to face Manang Marshyangdi Club on May 15, before hosting Chennaiyin FC and Abahani Dhaka on June 19 and June 26 respectively.
