The All India Football Federation’s League Committee on Monday shifted Real Kashmir’s home game against Quess East Bengal to New Delhi over security concerns and also decided to forwarded the matter of defending champions Minerva Punjab forfeiting their I-League match against the newcomers to the federation’s Executive Committee.
Members of the League Committee, including chairman Subrata Dutta, gave a hearing to representatives from both clubs after Minerva Punjab failed to travel for the match, scheduled on February 18 but left the decision on the possible action against the defending champions to the Executive Committee.
Earlier, the Delhi High Court had called on the AIFF to take a decision in this matter.
The League committee also considered Real Kashmir’s plea to shift their February 28th home game against East Bengal to a neutral venue in view of the current uncertainty prevailing in Kashmir due to Article 35A.
RKFC in their letter had also insisted that this uncertainty was not prevalent in Srinagar for the period from February 16-19. At the time, security agencies had cleared the scheduling of the match, but did not do so for the second division match between Lonestar Kashmir and ARA at the TRC Stadium in Srinagar on February 24.
The League Committee also announced that qualifiers for the Super Cup will be played in Bhubaneswar from March 15-16, while the final round of the tournament will be played from March 29 to April 13. The exact dates of the matches for the final round of the tournament will be announced once the schedule of the AFC Cup are finalised. Minerva Punjab will play in the group stages of Asia’s second-tier club tournament, while Chennaiyin will have to negotiate the play-offs.
The final round of the Indian Women’s League will be held in May 2019. Earlier, five states had their leagues cancelled by the League Committee in its meeting on December 7, 2018.