India Offered Chance To Host Lionel Messi's Argentina. Here's Why AIFF Turned It Down
Lionel Messi's Argentina could've played Sunil Chhetri's India but the AIFF didn't have enough funds to host the world champions.
Arguably the greatest footballer of all time, Lionel Messi, could've played a friendly game in India, but the All India Football Federation couldn't accept the proposal by Argentina. The secretary general of the AIFF, Shaji Prabhakaran, admitted that the Argentina FA had reached out to the Indian governing body for a friendly but the proposal had to be turned down as India didn't have the finances required to be pumped into such a setup. Millions of Messi fans, hence, saw the opportunity of witnessing their GOAT in action slip by.
In a chat with the Times of India, Prabhakaran revealed that the AIFF needed a big sum to accept Argentina's proposal which could've only happened by the backing of a strong partner. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case this time.
"The Argentina FA reached out to us for a friendly, but it was just not possible to arrange such a huge sum," Prabhakaran said.
He revealed further, "For such a match to happen here, we need the backing of a strong partner. The kind of money that Argentina command is huge and we have limitations in terms of our economic situation in football."
Purely from the football perspective, Prabhakaran also admitted that an India vs Argentina match would've been incredibly imbalanced considering the gulf in rankings of the two sides.
"There would have been too much of a mismatch if India played (Argentina)," said Prabhakaran.
Though a match against Argentina wasn't possible, Prabhakaran is hopeful of getting into some sort of partnership with the nation's FA or its clubs in a bid to strengthen the Indian ecosystem.
"We are interested in having some sort of partnership with the Argentina FA. There is lot of interest from Argentina too, even from their clubs," he explained.
As per the report, Argentina had planned to play two friendlies -- one in India and the other in Bangladesh -- but the funds that the FA needed to make it happen couldn't come through. In the end, Argentina played a friendly against Australia in China.
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