The Hindu : Sport / Football : Significant match for Iraq against India

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Sunday, May 13, 2007
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Significant match for Iraq against India

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: India's final Beijing Olympics football qualifier at home in Group E, to be played against Iraq, will be held at the floodlit Nehru Stadium here on May 16.

For India there is nothing to look forward to, having lost all its home and away matches thus far (DPR Korea and Thailand are the other teams in the group). However, it is a significant encounter for Iraq, which remains in contention for final-phase berth of the qualifiers. As it stands now, Korea is ahead with 10 points followed by Iraq with eight. A win here will fetch the team three points and push it marginally ahead of Korea.

Gearing up

Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu Football Association, which hosted the earlier two matches, is all geared up. Apollo Hospitals will provide free medical facilities at the stadium. AFC has nominated Khan Dato Dell Akbar of Malaysia as the Match Commissioner. All the referees will be from Syria.

Briefing newsmen, C.R. Visswanathan, TFA President, who is also Vice-president of the All India Football Federation, announced that the Nehru Stadium stood a chance of being chosen for the conduct of the pre-World Cup matches scheduled in February next year.

Mr. Dell Akbar, who is also the AFC security officer, will inspect security and safety aspects at the stadium. He will also hold discussions with AIFF, TFA, SDAT, fire services, police, first aid and other service representatives. Based on his assessment, a decision will be taken at an appropriate time, he said.

AFC team's visit

Mr. Visswanathan said the AFC team on the Vision Asia Project Tamil Nadu would submit its recommendations soon. After studying them, a team from TFA will visit Kuala Lumpur next month to finalise the project. In this connection, the AFC Secretary General, Dato Paul Money, had sent an appreciation letter to the TFA for the successful visit of the AFC team.

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