Herald

Panaji, Mar 16: Mahindra United manager Henry Menezes had to use all his persuasive skills to convince the Asian Football Confederation that Goa was best placed to host International matches.

Mahindra United have opted to play all their AFC Cup matches at Nehru Stadium, Fatorda. But, says Henry Menezes, the venue could have so easily been Ambedkar stadium, New Delhi.

“The crowd, atmosphere and facilities have attracted us to Goa, time and again. When we had to look at an alternate venue (besides Mumbai), we could not look beyond Goa,” Menezes told Herald.

But, with AFC extremely reluctant to allot matches to venues that do not have direct flights, Menezes had a lot of convincing to do during the Club meeting at the AFC headquarters, in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia).

 “We made a presentation explaining why Goa deserved International matches. We could tide over the fact that there were no direct flights explaining that international airports at Mumbai and Bangalore were just 45 minutes away,” explains Menezes.

When that didn’t seem to cut much ice with the AFC officials, Menezes had ready statistics to back his claim that Goa was truly an international venue.

 “Goa has hosted over 40 international matches. That’s really a big number,” says Menezes.

During a break in the club conclave, Menezes sold the Goa idea to Club representatives from Singapore, Hong Kong and Maldives – all from Mahindra’s Group F —leaving AFC officials with no option but to nod in agreement.

Mahindra play their first AFC Cup “home” match against New Radiant (Maldives) on Tuesday, March 20, at Nehru Stadium, Fatorda, 4 pm.