The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi is fully prepared to host the India v Palestine friendly match on February 6.
All the major ground works have been completed and the Kerala Football Association (KFA) is satisfied with the preparations so far.
The Indian team officials and a few Indian national team players have already arrived in the Keralite city [+ read more]. The players had a first training session at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium under the watchful eyes of national coach Wim Koevermans on Saturday.
The second batch of players will arrive in Kochi on Sunday, while the Palestine team [+ read more] is expected to land at the Nedumbassery International Airport on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Kerala Football Association is hoping to host more Indian national team matches in the future and hopes are high that the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium will be able to convince as the ideal place to host international matches in front of a partisan crowd.
Local authorities have also expressed their wish to see the Nehru Cup coming back to Kerala and they have suggested that the tournament should be hosted in different parts of the country instead playing it only in Delhi. Kochi hosted the Nehru Cup in 1997 for the last time when Iraq won the competition. Hosts India, China, Ghana and Uzbekistan were the other teams participating in the 1997 Nehru Cup.
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