All India Football Federation officials have refused to postpone Mohun Bagan's match against DSK Shivajians to be played on 30th January at Pune's Balewadi Stadium. The Kolkata Club qualified for the AFC Champions League Qualifying Round 2 after beating Singaporean club, Tampine Rovers and will now face Chinese Club, Shandong Luneng Taishan in an away game on 2nd February.
Mohun Bagan's officials had requested the top brass of India's Football governing body to postpone the match against the Pune side so that their team can get enough time to travel and prepare for their AFC Champions League Preliminary Round 2. But AIFF have refused to postpone the match citing reason that DSK Shivajians have organised a concert of Bollywood Singer, Shaan before the match and the tickets for the same has been sold.
Shandong Luneng Tanshin are based in Jinan city of Shandong Province, China and will take at least 22 hours for the Mariners to reach there from Pune. Mohun Bagan's fixture against DSK Shivajians will have kick off at 07:00 PM and concluding after 09:00 PM. The fastest way to reach Jinan is from Mumbai, where an Air China flight at 02:30 AM will get them to Jinan by 23:40 PM on the same day. This route seems impossible as the team will have to reach Mumbai by 01:00 AM, which is nearly impossible.
If the team travels to Jinan from Pune, the earliest they reach their destination is on 1st Feb at 22:40 PM, that is merely 14 hours before the match, giving them no time to get acclimatize to the weather of the city or any practice sessions.
Fans of Mohun Bagan who were ecstatic by their win against Tampine Rovers were visibly taken aback by AIFF decision and took to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to show their dissent.
It is important to note here that last year when Bengaluru FC qualified to the Knock Out Round of AFC Cup and had to play against South China AA in Hong Kong, AIFF postponed their Round 22 clash against Mohun Bagan AC by a day. But this wasn't the case this time.
Mohun Bagan AC will play 3 games in 8 days. On 30th they take on DSK Shivajians in a Round 5 clash. Then they travel to Jinan for their Round 2 clash of AFC Champions League Qualifiers on 2nd Feb. After this, they travel back to Kolkata, where they play against Shillong Lajong FC on 6th February.
