CHENNAI: When hosts Turkey refused to play India U-16 in the Istanbul Cup on the eve of the game on Wednesday, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) quickly arranged a friendly against the Cameroon colts. While the federation has shown a lot of prudence in organizing quite a few exposure tours for the India age-group teams in the recent past, it suddenly finds itself in a spot as the U-23 team is stranded in Sydney without any friendlies planned. The aim of the exposure tour, under coach Stephen Constantine , is to prepare the team for the SAFF Championships, which starts on September 4 in Dhaka.

The AIFF had to organise the trip owing to Constantine's insistence and now they are struggling to arrange any friendly which the team is supposed to play. It's been close to a week now that the 22-member squad and the support staff are camping at Sydney's Valentine Sports Park and none of the clubs which the AIFF initially contacted have given a nod for the practice games. It was learnt that AIFF is now desperately looking to arrange at least two friendlies so that the tour and the money spent — close to Rs 22-25 lakhs — to organize the tour don't go waste.

A livid AIFF official said that things could have been handled in a better way. "We were supposed to go for the tour of Australia before the Asian Games and had already confirmed two friendlies with their under-20 and under-23 national teams and another top club. But when the IOA didn't allow us, we cancelled the tour and intimated the Australian federation. But Constantine insisted that we don't waste such opportunity. Since our sports scientist Danny Deigan is from Sydney, he quickly made some arrangements there and the logistics issue was sorted with the Australian High Commission providing us with travel clearance documents despite last-minute applications. However, the Australia under-23 team and this club got busy. So we had to redraw the schedule again," the official told TOI on conditions of anonymity on Thursday.

The official, though, sounded positive that AIFF will be able convince two clubs to play two practice games. "We are still in talks with two clubs and, hopefully, we might be able to play two matches on August 25 and 28. But again, things are still not confirmed. If the clubs don't agree, we are staring at a loss of Rs 25 lakhs. With that kind of money, we could have easily organized two friendlies here with two top clubs," said the official.

Before flying out for their tour Down Under , the under-23 side had been training at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the capital since July 28. Seven-time champions India have been drawn in Group B with Sri Lanka and Maldives at SAFF Championships and will play their first match against the former on September 5. The team is now expected to fly directly to Dhaka from Sydney on September 2.

