HYDERABAD, August 9: Rain plays villain for AFC Challenge Cup final. With the incessant rains on Saturday, the ground conditions have become unsuitable forcing the Asian Football Confederation to postpone and shift the AFC Challenge Cup final between India and Tajikistan scheduled for Sunday and Delhi is likely to host the game in a week.

An AFC delegation will be flying to New Delhi on Sunday morning to inspect the ground conditions at the Ambedkar Stadium. The decision on whether to play finals here will be taken only after that. The delegation will be deciding the date of the match within a week.

The city of Hyderabad is witnessing heavy rains for eight days. It has lashed the Gachibowli and Lal Bahadur stadiums unsuitable for the final match of the eight-nation tournament, whose winners would automatically qualify for the 2011 Asian Cup.

“Hyderabad has been ruled out and an AFC delegation will inspect the Ambedkar Satdium in Delhi tomorrow morning and take a decision in the afternoon whether to hold the final there. The date for the final and third place play-off will be decided after inspection in Delhi but the match will be held within a week,” says AFC media officer Steve Tae Kim.

All India Football Federation General Secretary Alberto Colaco will be accompanying the AFC delegation to New Delhi.

Playing in Hyderabad after a few days was not considered an option as there is an uncertainty of the stoppage of rain. It is expected to rain for a couple of days more.

New Delhi was also in the running to host the July 30-August 10 elite tournament but Hyderabad grabbed it as Delhi had organised the Nehru Cup last August.

Earlier in the day, an AFC tournament organising committee conducted inspections both Gachibowli and Lal Bahadur stadium and later issued a media release that said that “the matches on August 10 have been postponed and the amended schedule will be announced tomorrow.”

The incessant rains have deteriorated the playing surface at the Gachibowli stadium and India lost last group match against Turkmenistan. The semi-final was played virtually on a paddy field, with mud and pools of water all over the ground, which later prompted Myanmar coach Marcos Antonio Falopa to comment that their semi-final match against the hosts was like a rugby game.

India football team coach Bob Houghton is against playing at the Lal Bahadur stadium at the heart of the city and wanted to shift the game to another city. But with rain prevailing almost everywhere in the country it has become a difficult task for him to suggest any venue.

“The ground at Gachibowli was also unplayable and with the kind of rain here, it will be worse tomorrow. The match then will not be decided by football skills. It will be a shame if a final match of such an important tournament is decided by factors not connected to football,” says Houghton. According to him, Lal Bahadur stadium was no better than Gachibowli. It will be embarrassment for the AFC and AIFF if the final is played at LBS which is a cricket ground, commented Houghton at a press conference.

He feels shifting the venue to Delhi is a better option, even though it would be a massive exercise for the AFC to transport more than 60 people — players of both teams and television crew — to another city. Asked which city he would prefer to play, he said with rain throughout the country, he would not be able to choose a venue, but ruled out playing in Kolkata.

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