India's SAFF Championship 2021 games to be telecast on Eurosport

The Blue Tigers will play their opening fixture at the competition on October 4, against Bangladesh.

Finally, some good news for Indian football fans - as Kushal Das, the General Secretary of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) confirmed to Khel Now that Eurosport India will telecast the Indian men's national team's games at the SAFF Championship 2021.

On Saturday, reports had it that the AIFF are preparing to buy the TV rights for the SAFF Championship 2021 from Maldives state-owned company Public Service Media (PSM). On Sunday morning, Khel Now approached Kushal Das for confirmation on the same, and he revealed that India's matches will be telecast in the country by Eurosport.

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It is worth remembering that Eurosport had also secured the rights to telecast the Blue Tigers' International Friendlies (against Oman and the UAE) in March 2021. A few technical issues later hampered the telecast of the Oman game, while the UAE game was shown without much hassle.

The Indian football team will play their first game in the SAFF Championship 2021 on Monday, October 4, against Bangladesh.

India's pre-game preparations

Ahead of the match, the Blue Tigers' head coach Igor Stimac spoke in the pre-match press conference on Saturday afternoon.

“We came here only four days before. We have to travel to Male on speed boats. There are artificial turfs here. We are protecting our players, so that they do not sustain injuries. The players know each other very well. So, I rely on them to carry out the duties and instructions on the pitch. We want to enjoy the tournament and not have any nervousness,” he said.

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Meanwhile, India skipper Sunil Chhetri expressed that the team are not thinking about how far they will advance in the SAFF Championship 2021.

“That’s a general sentiment outside. If you are playing for the country, you want to win every game. Sometimes you get hard opponents, sometimes you are playing at home and sometimes you are playing away. When we go into a tournament, we don’t think about whether we will reach the final and who will we play,” he said, before adding: "No matter who you are as a team you can never think like that. You are thinking about Bangladesh and it will be a hard game. We have played Bangladesh twice and both the games have been difficult for us."

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