Stranded football team in tenterhooks about Asiad fate

With the Sports Ministry delaying in the naming of Indian contingent for the upcoming Asian Games in South Korea, the national men's and women's football teams found themselves stranded in Shanghai with uncertainty looming large over their participation in the multi-sporting event.
Both the teams had gone for exposure tours to China from where they were to leave for Incheon tomorrow but due to the delay in the announcement of the Indian contingent by the government, the footballers are now stuck in Shanghai as their flight tickets have been canceled and new tickets are yet to be booked.
A top All India Football Federation official said that even if the teams make it to the Asian Games squad it would now be running against time for them and the players may have to play as soon as they land Incheon.

"There is a chance of the footballers playing just a day after reaching Incheon. We have already canceled the tickets from Shanghai to Incheon (for September 9) which were booked two months back because the flight timings were early morning local time in China tomorrow," the official said.
"Our plan is to collect accreditations of football contingent from the IOA as soon as the list is out and we are sending an official from the national team department to Shanghai to hand them over. But it is going to be about when the footballers will leave from Shanghai for Incheon as the tickets will have to booked at last minute.

"The difficult thing is that we are not getting tickets together for the 50 members (men 27 and women 23) and so they have to leave for Incheon in batches. There is every possibility of the players and landing just a day before the actual match. We are now in tenterhooks," the official said on condition of anonymity.
The women's team play Maldives on September 14 while the men's team play United Arab Emirates on September 15. The managers' meeting is on September 13.