Indian Football Team: Friendly with Jordan canceled

India could only assemble in Amman with less than 24 hours to kickoff and the team management deemed it impossible to go through with the game...

The international football friendly between Jordan and India which was scheduled to be played on Saturday (17 November 2018) in Amman stands cancelled.

The full India squad arrived in Jordan only in the late hours of Friday night after seven players and a few officials were stuck in Kuwait City airport for more than 10 hours after their flight to Amman was diverted because of heavy rainfall.

A 15-member group had already touched down in the Middle-Eastern country on Thursday but only after an unscheduled diversion to Doha. India were already without their record all-time goalscorer Sunil Chhetri who missed out owing to an ankle injury.

Jordan has been ravaged by flash floods in recent weeks and the Jordan Football Association (JFA) had already announced that the amount collected from ticket sales for the India game would be donated for the national relief fund.

India have been rendered helpless with the match impossible to be rescheduled the next day as Jordan host Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

Players were mentally and physically exhausted after the ordeal they had to undergo to reach Jordan. The team management saw no other option but to call off the game.

The pre-match press conference which was supposed to be conducted on Friday evening involving both the Jordan head coach Vital Borkelmans and his Indian counterpart Stephen Constantine had also been cancelled.

India do not have any other friendly lined up in the current international window but the 97th-ranked Indian team are scheduled to face Oman in a friendly on December 27.

The Blue Tigers are drawn alongside hosts UAE, Thailand and Bahrain in Group A of the Asian Cup. India in their fourth appearance in the Asian Cup finals will open their campaign against Thailand on 6 January at the Al Nahyan Stadium in Abu Dhabi.