The Asian Football Confederation website last night still failed to mention the place of the match
South Korea and Syria will not play their World Cup qualifier in Macau next week as previously scheduled, the football governing body in Seoul said yesterday night, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) said the 2018 FIFA World Cup final Asian qualifying round match between South Korea and Syria next Tuesday (Sept. 6) “will not take place at [the] Macau Olympic Stadium after the Macau Football Association and its Syrian counterpart failed to reach an agreement on details.”
The KFA added that the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is in talks with the Syrian Football Association to determine an alternative venue for the match. The exact location is expected be revealed no later than today, Yonhap said.
According to the South Korean agency, “The Taeguk Warriors were set to depart for Macau on Saturday,” two days after they open their regional qualification round against China at the Seoul World Cup Stadium, today.
South Korea, ranked 48th in the latest FIFA world rankings, is scheduled to face Syria (105th) on Tuesday.
Syria, which was required to stage their home matches on neutral soil due to the ongoing civil war, initially picked Lebanon to host the game against South Korea. However, on Aug. 23 they changed the venue to Macau, evoking security reasons, as Macau Daily Times reported earlier citing football official sources.
A KFA spokesperson said they are “trying to find out why Macau decided not to stage the match, and speculated that money may be the problem. Syria would have had to pay for security and the use of the stadium”. They also needed to cover their own transportation and lodging expenses, contrary to local reports which say that the Macau Football Association would have footed the bill (estimated at MOP6 million).
The Korean official added “if Syria can’t find a new venue for the upcoming qualifier in time, they will be forced to forfeit the match by AFC [rules]”.
If Syria reverts their decision back to Lebanon, as originally envisioned, the official said that the “KFA will likely oppose the decision.”
“It’s not easy to purchase a large number of airline tickets to the Middle Eastern country on such short notice,” added the official.
Officials from the AFC, FIFA and Macau’s Sports Bureau confirmed to MDT earlier this week that Syria would play its “home matches” at the Macau Stadium; information that was confirmedon fifa.com earlier this week.
Last night, the South China Morning Post reported that the Macau Football Association expressed “disappointment” that negotiations with their Syrian counterparts had failed to reach an agreement.
“The decision not only leaves Syria and their opponents bereft of a venue, it almost certainly kills off a wider plan for the city to host all five of the conflict-ridden nation’s “home’’ games in Group A of the Asian qualifiers – which includes a match against China,” the SCMP said.
“Bringing Syria to play their matches in Macau would have been a win-win [situation],” Daniel Sousa, vice president of the MFA, said last night, as quoted by SCMP. PC/Agencies
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