The Al Duhail forward was in rampant form for the Qataris as he became only the fourth player in Asian Cup history to score four in a single game.
Minerva Punjab FC will take on Indian Super League side Jamshedpur FC on April 2 in the inaugural Super Cup football tournament which begins in Bhubaneswar on March 31.
Bengaluru FC will begin their I-League title defence against Shillong Lajong at home at Kanteerava Stadium in the inaugural game of the new season on January 7.
The AIFF admitted that professionalism in Indian football is still a distant dream, as only six clubs satisfy the guidelines proposed by the Asian Football Confederation.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Friday
A former Playboy model has completed a takeover of debt-ridden top division club AFC Hermannstadt.
There is speculation about his retirement and the Indian captain happily responds with a smile that 'I don't know yet'.
India lose to Bahrain 0-1, crash out of AFC Asian Cup.
Dilip Kumar 'got annoyed and was about to leave the stage before things were brought under control'.
'This is a wonderful opportunity, but there is also a lot of work ahead of us and I am eager to get onto the training ground to start working with the players.'
India skipper Sunil Chhetri, who had struck a hat-trick in the final when India won the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup, stressed on the importance of not resting on past laurels and said he is focussed on leading the team's campaign in the AFC Challenge Cup Qualifiers.
Gulf nations want Australia out of Asia, says AFC chief
All India Football Federation president Praful Patel said India must ensure that 'right steps' are taken as it targets qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
The Indian Football team have now broken all records having won eight games on the trot since the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers Playoff Round 1 match against Laos on June 2, 2016.
71-year-old Sven-Goran Eriksson won 18 trophies with various clubs in Sweden, Portugal and Italy, between 1979 and 2000, and became the first manager to win league-and-cup doubles in three countries.
I-League set to resume in early March.
Tandon said that Ferrando left no room for discussion.
Blue Tigers rise to third spot.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Sporting clube de Goa confirmed they have formally withdrawn from I-League 2016-17 owing to "strong objections" to the proposed road map by All India Football Federation and its marketing partners IMG-Reliance for Indian football.
Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan and East Bengal need to put their complaints aside and do some 'soul-searching' on why they have failed to attract the kind of investors needed to play in the more glamorous Indian Super League, AIFF General secretary Kushal Das said on Tuesday.
Ono had won the AFC Young Player of the Year award in 1998.
Former FIFA presidential candidate and executive committee member Mohamed Bin Hammam has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over his provisional ban from soccer, the latest episode in a long-running saga.
This is India's best-ever FIFA Ranking since April 1996 when India were also ranked 100.
India football captain Sunil Chhetri believes that the country's budding soccer players should get a chance to train in European academies in order to improve their skills. The man with 72 international goals described his stint with Sporting Lisbon as a 'great experience'.
On May 6, Arindam expressed his concerns about his mother's illness on the social media platform.
Al Hilal striker Nasser Al Shamrani said it was a normal reaction to spit at Western Sydney Wanderers defender Matthew Spiranovic at the end of the AFC Champions League final earlier this month after claiming to be verbally abused by the Australian.
The Indian football team will play against China for the first time in 21 years, and the first time away from home, in an international friendly in October, continuing its preparation for the prestigious Asian Cup next year.
The tournament brings together the six continental champions from across the world, with European Champions League winners Bayern Munich the first to have qualified.
National team goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu became the first Indian player to be signed by an Indian club from an European club in a move involving a transfer fee.
The Indian men's football team will kick-start its preparations for the next month's SAFF Championships in Maldives with the first of the two international friendly matches against Nepal in Kathmandu on Thursday.
A Japanese athlete at the Asian Games has been charged by police after admitting to stealing a camera from a South Korean journalist, police said on Saturday.
On the last day of the competition, Yash Vardhan and Shreya Agrawal bagged three gold medals each.
New Zealand football coach Fritz Schmid, on Tuesday, dubbed India lying somewhere between 'a sleeping giant and a rising competitor'.
Bengaluru FC captain Sunil Chhetri feels that his club making it to the summit clash of the AFC Cup heralds a beginning in the revival of Indian football. Bengaluru take on Iraq's Al Quwa Al Jawiya in Saturday's final at the Qatar SC Stadium in Doha. "Bengaluru reaching the AFC Cup final in the host country of the 2022 World Cup, and hopefully winning it, has signaled the beginning of the revival of Indian football as an Asian power," said Chhetri who is also the India captain.
The list of international sporting events affected by a new virus outbreak in China grew on Wednesday with skiing World Cup races in Yanqing cancelled and Olympic women's football in Australia in doubt over concerns about athletes' safety. Badminton, tennis and basketball were among other sports whose governing bodies were rearranging events, weighing possible changes or monitoring the implications of the outbreak.
Earlier this month, India had held Asian champions Qatar to a goalless draw in Doha to gain their first point in the 2022 World Cup Qualifiers.
World football governing body FIFA on Thursday sought an update from the All India Football Federation (AIFF) on the current scenario in India to which the national federation reiterated its stance that it would resolve the impasse surrounding an unified league in a two-three year window.
The Indian National Football Team achieved its best-ever FIFA Ranking since February 1996 as they were ranked 96 in the July FIFA Rankings released on Thursday.
