Worried about a clash of dates between the World Cup qualifiers, AFC Cup and National Football League, All India Football Federation president Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi said a rescheduling of the ongoing NFL is on the cards.
"We have decided to call an urgent meeting with the clubs. The NFL may not conclude by March 31 and may go beyond that date," Dasmunshi said in Delhi on Tuesday.
Dasmunshi said India will play all the matches in the World Cup qualifying tournament on home and away basis, beginning with a match against Singapore on February 18.
"Japan tried to persuade us to play both the matches in Japan but we said no," said Dasmunshi, who just returned from Kuala Lumpur after attending an AFC meeting.
India, placed in Group III, are clubbed with Asian champions Japan, Oman and Singapore and have matches scheduled between February and November 2004.
Dasmunshi also said he is trying to modify the schedule a bit and requested the AFC to schedule India's last match against Japan at home instead of against Oman as per the present draw.
The other reason to force a change in the NFL fixtures is the AFC Cup matches of East Bengal and Mahindra United.
The AFC has divided the club competitions into a three tier one. The top tier will be the AFC Champions League, followed by the AFC Cup with the AFC President's Cup being the lowest level of Asian club competition.
The AFC Cup will begin on February 11 with East Bengal drawn in Group E along with Negri Sembilan (Malaysia), Geylang United (Singapore) and Island FC (Maldives).
Federation Cup champions Mahindra are drawn in Group B along with Al Wahda Sanaa (Yemen), Al Wahda (Syria) and Dhofar (Oman).
The AIFF president said next year India will play more international matches to improve its FIFA ranking from the present 127th.
He also announced that the Asian Vision Conference would be held in Delhi next month from January 5 to 12.
"The AFC president and secretary will attend the conference and we will also lay the foundation stone of Football House [the AIFF headquarters] on January 9," he said.
