ISL 2017: Delhi Dynamos' home match against Mumbai City FC in February likely to be rescheduled
What's the story?
The story of the rift between the Delhi Dynamos FC authorities and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) resurfaced yet again with the SAI cancelling the Delhi Dynamos' booking of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium for their clash against Mumbai City FC, which has been scheduled to take place on February 4, 2018.
A Delhi Dynamos official confirmed the development to Sportskeeda, and said, "We were informed about the SAI's decision yesterday. The club is in talks with them but at the moment, it is not certain whether the match will be postponed or if we will be allowed to play."
In case you didn't know
Earlier this month, the Delhi club and fans across the country when the stadium was allowed to be used by the SAI for a Bollywood event featuring Salman Khan, which caused damage to the playing surface.
The heart of the matter
With the schedule fixed ahead of the start of the season, the stadium was booked by the Delhi Dynamos for their ISL 2017 clash against Mumbai City FC.
However, in a letter directed to the franchise, the Sports Authority seems to have cancelled their booking of the stadium, claiming that they have planned to host the Khelo-India School Games at the same stadium on the same day.
Khelo-India School Games is an initiative which plays host to budding athletes from various cities across India who will take part in games such as volleyball, wrestling, archery amongst others.
What's next?
Delhi Dynamos FC, which is currently placed one spot above the bottom-placed ATK with just a solitary win from four games will be looking to gather some wins and move up the table and will play host to the FC Goa setup over the weekend.
Author's take
Given that the scheduling of the matches is done ahead of the start of the season, SAI will need to re-consider their scheduling of the Khelo Games since it would be a major inconvenience to the franchise and the fans.