Guwahati, Jan. 31: The organising committee of the 12th South Asian Games (SAG) today decided to shift the venue of the men's football event from Nehru Stadium to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) grounds here.

Though the committee today issued a directive asking its officials not to divulge details regarding the Games to the media, sources in the committee confirmed that Nehru Stadium had been ruled out and SAI Guwahati, was instructed to prepare the ground as early as possible.

"It will not be possible to hold matches at the Nehru Stadium ground, which is yet to attain the minimum green coverage necessary for football. However, relentless efforts are still on to try and host a few matches, towards the end of the tournament, at that ground," a committee insider told The Telegraph.

SAI Guwahati director Subhash Basumatary confirmed that his office had been asked to prepare the ground at Newfield here to host matches. "Our ground is anyway ready. We are sprucing it up further and I am sure that the participating teams will find it #good," he said.

According to the Games schedule, Nehru Stadium was supposed to host the football events from February 6 to 11, after which the semi-finals and the final would be held at Indira Gandhi Stadium on February 13 and 15 respectively.

AIFF's local representative Ankur Dutta, who is also the secretary of Assam Football Association, said the AIFF was yet to be informed about the shift in venue. "I am not aware of any such development. But it is true that the Nehru Stadium ground is unfit for playing till now," Dutta said.

Chief executive officer of organising committee, Guwahati, Injeti Srinivas, had on Friday said efforts were on to make the stadium ground ready for matches and that it had the SAI ground as "plan B".

He was categorical in saying that Nehru Stadium would be ready "because, we cannot afford to deprive people of the opportunity of watching the matches in huge numbers, which the SAI ground cannot accommodate".

Apart from a lesser crowd capacity, the SAI ground does not conform to international football requirements. Unlike the Fifa specification for north-south direction of the pitch, the ground concerned is in east-west direction. Moreover, a recent Fifa inspection found that the athletics track and other track-and-field equipment were placed too close to the pitch, making it hazardous for the players.

"The weather has not been very kind to us," admitted Srinivas when asked about the delay in completion of the refurbishment at Nehru Stadium.