Speechless, heartbroken and sad: Dalima Chhibber after COVID-hit India exit AFC Women's Asian Cup

Indian national football team player Dalima Chhibber on Monday said she is speechless, heartbroken, and sad after the team exited AFC Women's Asian Cup 2022 as they failed to field a team against Chinese Taipei.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on Monday confirmed that COVID-hit India has withdrawn from the AFC Women's Asian Cup and their remaining Group A matches stand cancelled. The India Women's National Team was unable to register a minimum of 13 players (including one goalkeeper) in the player selection list and start list for the match between Chinese Taipei and India on Sunday.

Taking to Twitter, Chhibber, the Indian full-back, wrote: "Speechless, heartbroken and sad."

Indian goalkeeper Aditi Chauhan wrote: "Absolutely devastated."

AFC in an official statement said: "Accordingly, Article 4.1 of the Special Rules Applicable to AFC Competitions during Covid-19 Pandemic ("Special Rules") applied."

"In view of the above, India was unable to participate in the match, is to be held responsible for the match not taking place, and is considered as to have withdrawn from the competition," the statement added.

Applying Article 6.5.5 of the Competition Regulations, all matches of India are cancelled and considered null and void. For the avoidance of doubt, all points and goals in those matches shall not be taken into consideration when determining the final rankings in the group pursuant to Article 7.3.

In addition, in accordance with Article 7.4 of the Competition Regulations, the calculation of best third-placed Participating Teams among all groups shall be in accordance with Appendix 2 of the AFC Competition Operations Manual.

Only three (3) Participating Teams will now be participating in Group A of the competition.

( With inputs from ANI )

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