Recently, AFC’s assistant general secretary Carlo K Nohra was in India to inspect both venues and is expected to submit his report shortly to the AFC management and they will send the report to AIFF. “Carlo Nohra from the AFC was in India and visited the two identified venues—Hyderabad and Delhi—during his visit,” AIFF general secretary Alberto Colaco told Sportline.

He further added that besides the main and alternate venues, the practice venues, the hotels, and various other factors would be taken into consideration by the AFC whilst recommending the venue to the AIFF.

It was supposedly learnt that Nohra was not happy with the facilities at Ambedkar Stadium and had said that it needs to be refurbished if it has to host the mega event.

BR Ambedkar Stadium had in August hosted the Nehru Cup, for which it was renovated. With India winning the tournament, the venue came under the limelight and got positive reviews. The AFC panel will surely take that into consideration.

Delhi Soccer Association secretary N K Bhatia was keeping his fingers crossed.

“There are some areas we need to work on. The main thing is the ground conditions but still the tournament is quite far away and we will start working in March so that by the time the tournament comes, we will have a good playing surface,” Bhatia said.