Guwahati, Kolkata favorites to host India's FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Oman & Bangladesh

Mumbai is another venue in contention to host other home games.

According to recent reports, Guwahati and Kolkata have emerged as possible venues to host India's first two home games of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers against Oman and Bangladesh in September and October respectively.

The draw which took place in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month had put the Blue Tigers in a group along with Bangladesh, Oman, Afghanistan and Qatar. While India take on Oman in their first home game of the qualifiers on September 5, the Blue Tigers face neighbors Bangladesh on October 15.

According to IANS, sources in the All India Football Federation (AIFF) had said that the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium has emerged as the possible venue to host the game against Oman in September, following the improvement of the stadium since NorthEast United taking it over as their home.

"AFC officials will inspect the venue soon and we will take the final call then. But, as things stand now, Guwahati is the frontrunner for the first game," the source said.

For the Blue Tigers' second home game, against Bangladesh, Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Stadium (Salt Lake Stadium) has emerged as the favorite to host the match. The decision to not host both the games in Guwahati was because of potential unrest in light of Assam's recent NRC (National Register of Citizens) process that has been majorly aimed to identify undocumented migrants, primarily from Bangladesh.

The other venue to host home games for the Blue Tigers is likely to be the Mumbai Football Arena, which had hosted the inaugural edition of the Intercontinental Cup last year.

Guwahati and Kolkata, along with Mumbai had previously hosted the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2017, with the Salt Lake Stadium hosting the final of the showpiece event.

The matches in Round 2 of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers will run between September 5, 2019 to June 9, 2020. The round will be played in a double round-robin format, where every team in a group will face the others twice on a home and away basis.