New Delhi: Guwahati is ready to host India’s first qualifying fit for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in opposition to Oman on 5 September after the Assam Football Association (AFA) expressed hobby “thinking about the recognition” of the sport in the vicinity. The Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Sarusajai, on the outskirts of the state capital, should get to host the game. “We have got in touch with the All India Football Federation (AIFF) soliciting for them to provide us one of the World Cup qualifying suits, and they took into consideration it. There is a chance we might get the five September recreation,” AFA preferred secretary Hemen Brahma advised PTI.

The Assam Football Association has received “high quality” feedback from the apex body. “The AIFF has received an offer from Assam, but not anything has been finalized yet,” a supply close to the governing body said.
Officials from the Asian Football Confederations (AFC) will inspect the venues, including the one in Guwahati, before arriving at a choice. The Indian soccer team becomes ultimate week exceeded a comparatively easy draw for the 2022 World Cup 2d spherical Asian qualifiers and become clubbed with Qatar, Oman, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh in Group E. The 40 Asian international locations have been divided into eight groups of 5 groups, each inside the draw held at the AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. Teams in each institution will play domestic-and-away round-robin matches beginning from 5 September.

Besides Guwahati, the Mumbai Football Arena and the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata have emerged as the probable venues to host the qualifying campaign’s home fits. While they made the ultimate Asian Cup, India persevered a disastrous World Cup qualifying marketing campaign for the 2018 edition, including suffering a loss to tiny pacific country Guam. Bengaluru: The Indian men’s hockey group captain Manpreet Singh on Wednesday said the eight-time champions are focussed on qualifying for next yr’s Tokyo Olympics with just a yr left for the beginning of the showpiece occasion. The very last countdown for Tokyo Games began on Wednesday with exactly three hundred and sixty-five days last for the quadrennial occasion to begin. The 2020 Olympics might be held from 24 July to 9 August next 12 months, with the initial rounds of hockey for each man and woman scheduled to start on 25 July.

We have a countdown chart as nicely. We often remind ourselves approximately the number of days left for the qualifying and how many days before the first hockey match at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. We are on our ft to qualify,” Manpreet said. The skipper said the consistent reminder also boosts gamers to improve upon their individual games and make sure they may be doing their nice for the state’s purpose.

It’s no longer just us gamers but the education workforce to remind us approximately how many days are left for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the goals we want to reap beforehand of this milestone event,” Manpreet said.
“We have set quick dreams to paintings on our gray areas, except which team we intend to play against at the approaching tournaments inclusive of Olympic Test occasion, Belgium Tour and what implications this would have on the Qualifying occasion in November. We have mapped out each detail to make certain we do better.”
Manpreet started closing injury-loose is another element that the gamers want to take care of inside the run as much as the Olympics.

Meanwhile, the Indian girls’ team skipper Rani Rampal stated they are decided to book their Tokyo tickets to make the sector understand that qualifying for the 2016 Rio Olympics changed into no longer a fluke. We have all made personal sacrifices to make certain the group is put beforehand of the whole lot else, and we’re running in the direction of one goal that is to qualify for the Olympics,” Rani stated. We need to reinstate that qualifying for Rio Olympics became not a one-off incident. That hockey lovers can expect the ladies’ group to create true consequences at predominant competitions.

Rani additionally lauded the recent success of USA’s music and discipline athletes Hima Das and Dutee Chand, pronouncing their achievements are a testament to the fact that Indian ladies are rising at the sector level.
Competing in 200m and 400m races, Hima won 5 gold medals inside 20 days in diverse meets throughout Poland and the Czech Republic. Dutee Chand bagged a historic gold in the 100m dash at World University Games in Napoli, Italy these days. The latest performances of Hima Das and Dutee Chand prove that Indian women are growing to the event and are running towards making India a dominant contingent at the arena stage,” she stated.