August 19 – The AFC Cup club competition resumed yesterday with group D, centralised in the Maldives, and seeing wins for India’s ATK Mohun Bagan and Bangladesh’s Bashundhara Kings.
The AFC Cup, the Asian confederation’s club competition for developing nations, has been beset with scheduling and hosting issues during the pandemic. The 2020 competition was cancelled and the 2021 edition has been continually challenged with the regional spread of covid and nations’ differing abilities to host or guarantee covid-secure playing conditions.
The AFC was forced in July to cancelall matches in the ASEAN Zone – comprising Groups G, H and I as well as the Playoff Stage – due to the challenges in finding a suitable host to stage the centralised matches.
While the East has struggled to get games played, the West of the AFC region has progressed teams to the semi-final stages.
The winners of Group D in the Maldives will advance to the single-leg Inter Zone Semi-final to be played against either FC Nasaf from Uzbekistan or FC Ahal from Turkmenistan in September 22.
ATK Mohun Bagan opened their campaign with an impressive 2-0 win over Indian rivals Bengaluru, and will go into their second match against local teams Maziya Sports & Recreation as favourites. Bangladesh Federation Cup winners Bashundhara Kings will
The second and third match days will be August 21 and 24.
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