KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 18 — The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has confirmed that the schedule for the remaining Group G second round matches of the 2022 World Cup/2023 Asia Cup Qualifiers has been postponed to June.
AFC secretary-general, Datuk Windsor Paul John said the five teams involved, namely Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Vietnam had given their final say on the matter during a virtual meeting with the 40 teams contesting in the second round of the qualifiers.
“We (AFC) have received the agreement of all five countries in Group G to push the remaining matches in March to June and all the matches will be centralised,” he told Bernama today.
Prior to this, AFC had given until February 15 to all teams to finalise their stand on the schedule for the remaining Group G second round matches.
At the same time, Windsor said AFC would now start the venue selection process by issuing notification to all the teams to apply to become hosts in June.
But, according to Windsor, any of the country wishing to be host must meet the conditions set by AFC.
“Among others, the national border must be open to the teams and match officials, must have good health infrastructure facilities and quarantine facilities besides not forcing the quarantine process for those entering the country,” he said.
Windsor said the notification letter was expected to be issued next week and all countries would be given ample time to make a decision before AFC makes its evaluation to determine which country qualifies to be host.
According to the original schedule, Malaysia were to UAE in Dubai on March 23 before hosting Vietnam on March 30 and ending the round against Thailand in June.
After five matches, Malaysia are two points behind Group G leader, Vietnam who have 11 points while Thailand are in third place (eight points), UAE, fourth, (six points) and Indonesia last without any points.
— Bernama
