Pune: After no hopes of Indian Super League (ISL) action post FC Pune City pack up, the Balewadi Sports Complex Stadium is all set to play hosts to three home games of debuntants Odisha FC who had to shift at the last minute as their home ground Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneshwar is not prepared to host the games.
Odisha FC will play against ATK, Bengaluru FC and Hyderabad FC on November 24, December 4 and 11 respectively. The Kalinga Stadium which will host the 2020 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup is expected to be ready before December 16.
Ashish Shah, Chief Executive Officer, Odisha FC hopes that their club will get the support from Pune fans.
“Moving to Pune came as a surprise for us, but the main reason is because of the prolonged monsoons, the main pitch in Kalinga stadium is not ready yet which has forced the league to transfer three of our home games. After all the analysis, we agreed that Pune is the suited venue for us,” Shah informed.
When asked about the reaction of players after the shift, Shah said “We have seven foreign players. For them this was a shock, because when we recruited them we had to explain them where Bhubaneshwar is. Their families are also there and are settling down and then suddenly for a month we are going to be away. Luckily, our captain Marcos Tebar has played for FC Pune City and for him this is a known ground which is a positive sign for us.”
“This came as a surprise for our fans too. In Odisha we have organically built our fan base. They are very active. They interact a lot with us. They were working with us on a lot of initiatives. The good thing is they have been in touch with us, so they knew what was going on. They have seen the effort the government has been putting in the infrastructure and at the end of the day rain is not in anybody’s control,” Shah added.
