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| No hard-quarantine for Indian football team in Qatar: Report | | |
Agencies
New Delhi, May 15: The Indian football team will not have to go through a hard quarantine of 10 days when they reach Qatar for a preparatory camp and the 2022 World Cup qualifiers that follow in June.
According to a report in Goal.com, the Indian contingent will have to remain in the bio-secure environment and have to strictly adhere to the COVID-19 protocols put in place by the organisers. The Indian side is gearing up for the games and they would be able to start training immediately on arriving in Qatar. According to Goal, the Blue Tigers will have to produce a negative coronavirus test result before they assemble in Delhi and then another test will be conducted prior to the departure for Qatar. While India is out of reckoning for a 2022 FIFA World Cup spot, the matches against Qatar, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are crucial with an eye on the 2023 Asian Cup.
Earlier, the Indian team played two friendly matches against Oman and UAE in March. India drew the game against Oman and coach Igor Stimac was really happy with the team's efforts. "From 19-11-2019 to 25-03-2021, the world has seen more struggles than ever. But, as the coach of @IndianFootball, it gives me immense pride that the beautiful country has evolved with a renewed vigour to rewrite Indian football history.
"That's the reason we could see 10 debutants with unbridled energy coming with hunger and fighting shoulder to shoulder against the likes of @OmanFA who were 23 spots ahead of us in the @FIFAcom rankings -- but they dared to fight back.
"Our task is far from being done. It's the process that started yesterday night 2000 km away from home and it'll continue until we come out with a team of #BlueTigers who will fulfil the dream of 1.4 billion Indians!" he had tweeted.
Unfortunately, India lost the next game against UAE 0-6 -- the heaviest defeat since 2010. The two friendlies were played as the team was looking to keep preparations on for the joint-qualification round of the 2022 World Cup and 2023 Asian Cup. |
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