Indian football team coach Khalid Jamil and a few players were stopped from entering the stadium in Kochi on Thursday, where they were supposed to play their home match against Hong Kong. Because of this, the pre-match press conference scheduled for 3 pm on Thursday for the Asian Cup qualifier had to be cancelled, Reuters reported citing to media reports.
The press conference was called off because the Kerala Football Association (KFA) had not paid the required security deposit to the city authorities who manage Kochi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, news agency PTI reported, quoting an official from the All India Football Federation (AIFF).
AIFF assures match will go ahead
The AIFF later said in a statement that Tuesday’s match is still expected to take place as planned.
“We have full faith that the formalities will be completed by the Kerala Football Association with the local authorities,” it posted on X (formerly Twitter).
AIFF Statement. pic.twitter.com/WazEBncs8i
— Indian Football (@IndianFootball) March 26, 2026
The AIFF has already been facing criticism recently after the Indian women’s team received undersized kits during the Women’s Asian Cup earlier this month, which forced the staff to quickly arrange for jerseys locally.
Meanwhile, the Indian men’s team, which is currently at the bottom of its group in the Asian Cup 2027 qualifiers, has already been knocked out of the tournament.
Similar incident involving GCDA earlier
This is not the first time the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) has been involved in such an incident. Earlier this season, a press conference of Kerala Blasters FC was also disrupted ahead of their ISL match against Mumbai City FC.
On that occasion, then head coach David Catala and Indian player Rowllin Borges were asked to leave the media room where the press interaction was supposed to be held, according to a report by Mathrubhumi.com.
Final qualifier match scheduled in Kochi
As per the schedule, the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium in Kochi, will host the Indian senior men’s team’s final match of the AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027 Qualifiers Final Round against Hong Kong, China, on March 31. The match will begin at 7:00 pm IST, as confirmed earlier by the AIFF.
This will be the first time in 10 years that Kochi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium will host the Blue Tigers. The last time the Indian senior men’s team played at this venue was in March 2016, when they faced Turkmenistan in a FIFA World Cup qualifier. That was also their most recent match in Kerala.
This will be India’s third different home venue in the final round of the qualifiers. Earlier, Shillong hosted their match against Bangladesh last March, while Margao hosted the game against Singapore last October.