HYDERABAD: On October 21, the football matches of the Afro-Asian games will start. But looks like many teams are not taking the competition seriously or how else would they justify the delay in arrival.

After the controversy over the venues and Cameroon pulling out in the last minute, now questions are being raised on how serious are the teams participating in the inaugural AAG.

With just two days to go, only Uzbekistan and hosts India have reached here. It's not know even if the Ghana team has made any travel arrangments.

If it is a World Cup, Asia Cup or African Cup, the teams would have reached the venue at least one week before the tournament to get acclimatised to weather conditions here.

On October 21, hosts India will take on Rwanda in the opening match at the renovated Lal Bahadur Stadium, which will be the main venue. In the second match of the day, Ghana will face Malaysia.

Interestingly, three of the teams scheduled to play on the opening day failed to turn up till Sunday. And there is no information regarding their arrival. If at all the teams reach tonight or come by on Monday morning, Rwanda, Malaysia and Ghana will straightaway play their matches without any practice sessions leave practice matches.

The top ranking team participating in the competition is Iran. It stands 48 in the FIFA ratings while the actual top teams like Cameroon, Senegal, Nigeria etc are not playing. Fresh from their triumph at Teheran where they routed New Zealand in the AFC/OFC Challenge Cup, Iran now look favourites. They have in their ranks 17-year-old Hussein Kaati, who scored a goal against New Zealand.

Uzbekistan are placed 110th while Rwanda are 111th in the FIFA rankings.