Parth Jindal, the CEO of Bengaluru FC has written to the All India Football Federation asking them to change the dates of the Federation Cup final if Bengaluru qualify for the Federation Cup final currently being held in Cuttack.

The mercury at the Barabati Stadium has intensified, with temperatures soaring towards 40 degrees Celsius and upwards as a lot of players have gone down with cramps as the latest to suffer a “season-ending injury” according to coach Albert Roca was BFC skipper Sunil Chhetri.

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With the national team set to play a friendly against Lebanon and then an AFC Asian Cup 2019 qualifier against Kyrgyz Republic, this is not good news for the Blue Tigers, a majority of whom are still participating in the ongoing Fed Cup.

Jindal didn’t mince his words as he wrote, “These conditions are in no way ideal to play quality football and the whole purpose of advertising Indian football is defeated.”

Bengaluru started their campaign on the 8th and will be playing their fourth match of the tournament, the semifinals against I-League champions Aizawl FC on Sunday evening. With an AFC Cup group match against Mohun Bagan on the 17th and the Blues in a position to qualify from the group, a proposed Fed Cup final on the 21st would mean that Bengaluru would play their fifth match in 14 days.

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Bengaluru FC’s CEO has requested the AIFF to consider shifting the final to the 24th of May, in case the Blues qualify as that would provide Albert Roca’s men with three extra days to recover.

“It isn’t the ideal recovery period before a big game but we’re going to keep that aside and focus on the job ahead. I was happy with the way the team applied themselves against Bagan on Friday and we will need a bigger performance than that against Aizawl who are riding high in confidence after their I-League triumph,” said Roca ahead of their semifinal tie.