Visa delays put Kings’ Mohun Bagan clash in doubt

Bashundhara Kings' AFC Cup away match against Mohun Bagan is under threat of cancellation or postponement as the reigning Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) champions could not go to India even two days before the match.

The BPL champions are scheduled to take on Mohun Bagan on Tuesday in their Group D match of the AFC Cup at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneshwar. The Kings were supposed to leave for India yesterday.

However, the Kings officials informed that they had to cancel their tickets as they were yet to receive the visas for India till yesterday afternoon. Later, the club got visas at around 7:50pm but by then their scheduled flight for India had already left. 

Having received the visas late yesterday, the Kings have been left with very little time to book flight tickets and the players would get less than 24 hours of rest before they take on the Kolkata giants, which is against AFC regulations, said the club's media and marketing manager Ahmed Shaaek.

"It is really tough to manage 60 air tickets for our registered members for the AFC Cup match by tomorrow [Monday]. We haven't taken the decision in this regard yet.

"As per the AFC regulations, a team has to arrive two days before the match. If we reach there one day before the match, it won't be ideal preparation because the players also need rest."

The Kings officials have written an official letter to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to inform them about the visa situation.

For the Kings, the ideal situation will be if the match gets deferred by at least a day or more but Shaaek feels a deferral seems unlikely.

"The match should be deferred by at least one day but that is also not possible. The AFC will give the final decision in this regard."

As per the letter Kings sent to the AFC, they started the process of obtaining the visas on August 28 and submitted all necessary documents to the visa application centre on September 20.

Meanwhile, Maldivian club Maziya SRC reached Odisha on Saturday night for their AFC Cup match against Odisha FC on the same day at the same venue.