Pakistan reaches six hours before SAFF Championship opener against Blue Tigers

Team Pakistan (Pic: AFP)

It was definitely not the build-up the Pakistan football team would have anticipated ahead of its SAFF Championship opener against hosts India, with ticketing issues forcing more than half of the side to arrive only six hours ahead of the tie on Wednesday. The bizarre chain of events was set off after the Pakistan team arrived in Mumbai from Mauritius at 1:00 AM on Wednesday morning.

The Pakistan squad comprising 32 members, including players and coaching staff, could not find seats in a single aircraft and was forced to split into two groups.

The first set boarded a 4:00 AM flight to Bengaluru, but the second lot took a 9:15 AM flight due to some issues pertaining to immigration clearance at the Mumbai airport. The second batch reached their team hotel close to the Kanteerava Stadium only past 1:00 PM, barely six hours ahead of the kickoff. However, PTI understands that the match will go ahead as per its scheduled 7.30 pm IST start despite the late arrival of Pakistani players.

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The local hosting body, Karnataka State Football Association, has set in place extensive security measures for the visiting Pakistan team.

"The Pakistan team will be given top-notch security and we have been briefed by top city police officials. There will be extensive measures like an escort vehicle for the team bus, police personnel layer at the team hotel and at the venue and they will also be provided with a security expert to accompany them," KSFA secretary M Satyanarayan told PTI.

Pakistan are scheduled to face India on June 21, Kuwait on June 24 and Nepal on June 27 in the SAFF Championship.

This is also the first football match between India and Pakistan since September 2018. On that day, India had defeated the neighbours 3-1 in the semifinal of the SAFF tournament.

Pakistan's build-up for the tournament was shrouded by uncertainty because of delay in the visa processing.

On Monday night the Indian High Commission in Mauritius finally cleared all the pending applications, paving way for the smooth travel of Pakistan squad to India for the tournament.

Pakistan team was in Mauritius to take part in the Four-Nation tournament, which was clinched by Djibouti.

(With PTI inputs)