KOCHI: Dismissing reports of the international friendly involving Argentina being moved away from India, the official sponsors of the match stressed on Wednesday that the “A” teams of world champions Argentina and Australia will play in Kochi on November 17 as planned.
“There’s no information on the cancellation of Kerala plans. The Argentina ‘A’ team will visit Kerala,” said Anto Augustine, the managing director of Reporter Broadcasting.
“This is a FIFA November window and has been confirmed in that manner, not a club game. All the documentation and financial matters have already been dealt with. I see these as baseless rumours,” he said.
Last week, Argentine news outlet TyC Sports had reported that there were strong chances of the match planned in India in the November window being shifted to Morocco. On Tuesday, international journalist Gaston Edul had also posted in ‘X’ that while Argentina’s first match in the window with Angola had been confirmed, the one in India “fell through”, leading to speculation, again, that the world champions’ visit has been cancelled.
Australia are slated to arrive in Kochi by November 10. The ticket sales for the match will begin on October 25, via a prominent booking app, the sponsors added.
Ahead of the match, the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kaloor is seeing a major face-lift at a cost of 70 crore, with new floodlights, seats, compound wall, and improvement in security aspects.
Under the coordination of the Ernakulam district collector, all departments concerned — including police and fire and safety — have started preparations to host the match safely in Kochi, with various events planned in the lead-up to it from November 14 to 17.