Why will Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium host Punjab's ISL home games?

October 4, 2023

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Why are Roundglass Punjab FC playing their home matches at New Delhi’s JLN Stadium?

The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here in New Delhi holds a lot of significance. Named after our country’s first Prime Minister, the JLN has hosted events like Asian Games, Asian Athletics Championship, Commonwealth Games, ISL, I-League, the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup among many other tournaments.

Back in 2014 when the Indian Super League was constituted, JLN became the home ground of North India’s only club, Delhi Dynamos FC. The Stadium is India’s 4th largest, Asia’s 27th largest in terms of sitting capacity but it last hosted an ISL game since 2018 when the club moved to Odisha from Delhi.

However, the Top-tier of Indian football is set to make a return in New Delhi but it will be not for Odisha. In fact, currently ISL’s only North Indian outfit Roundglass Punjab FC are all set to play their home games at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

The Punjab based club received promotion to ISL only because they acquired the Premier 1 Licencing criteria. And that will allow Punjab FC to play their games at JLN which is a FIFA and AFC certified stadium. Punjab FC also had Ahmedabad’s Transtadia Stadium in their plans but that stadium did not comply to AFC rules.

ISL returning to Delhi is definitely a good news for all the football fans living in the Capital who have not witnessed anything after 2019 to be precise. In order to attract fans, match organizers and ticketing partners are not charging anything for the game to be watched inside the Iconic stadium.

The 60,000 capacity stadium will not even see half of the stadiums filled as only the East Stand of JLN is allocated for both General and away fans. But dont be shocked if i say that all tickets have been sold out for upcoming matches on 6th October, 7th November, 14th December, 18th December and 26th December.