{"id":56890,"date":"2026-10-15T19:33:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T13:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=56890"},"modified":"2026-10-15T19:33:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T13:48:35","slug":"asian-cup-in-saudi-arabia-could-be-postponed-but-no-hurry-to-decide-afc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/asian-cup-in-saudi-arabia-could-be-postponed-but-no-hurry-to-decide-afc\/","title":{"rendered":"Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia could be postponed but ‘no hurry’ to decide: AFC"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ZURICH, Oct 15:<\/strong> The Asian Cup scheduled for January in Saudi Arabia could be moved back a year to 2028 “if we need to”, the continent’s top football official said, following a series of Houthi attacks on the country.<\/p>\n

But AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa also said they were in “no hurry” to make a decision over Asia’s premier football tournament.<\/p>\n

The 2027 Asian Cup is supposed to kick off on January 7 in the Saudi cities of Jeddah, Riyadh and Al Khobar.<\/p>\n

The kingdom has in recent days come under sustained attack in a dramatic escalation in the war with the Iran-backed Houthi group.<\/p>\n

“We can wait until the end of November,” the Asian Football Confederation president told reporters in Zurich on Wednesday about a decision on the fate of the Asian Cup.<\/p>\n

“Things can change very quickly for better or worse in the region and it is a question of seeing what happens,” he added.<\/p>\n

“If we need to make a decision then we will, but we could move back a year to 2028 if we need to.<\/p>\n

“But at the moment we are monitoring the situation and everything is on schedule.”<\/p>\n

Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr saw their Asian Champions League match delayed by an hour on Monday after the Saudi-led military coalition said it had intercepted a missile fired towards Riyadh.<\/p>\n

Three matches in Saudi domestic football, including one involving Al Nassr, were this week postponed.<\/p>\n

The exhibition Six Kings Slam tennis tournament, due to include Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev, was pushed back to the end of December.<\/p>\n

Australia, one of the 24 teams set to play at the Asian Cup, said this week it was “closely monitoring” the situation in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

The organisation representing South Korean players on Thursday said there was “serious concern regarding the safety of all players participating in the Asian Cup”.<\/p>\n

“The ongoing military tensions and security instability in the Middle East are issues that cannot be taken lightly,” said Lee Keun-ho, president of the Korea Professional Footballers Association (KPFA), according to Yonhap News Agency.<\/p>\n

Lee added that “no tournament’s value can take precedence over the lives and safety of players and football fans”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ZURICH, Oct 15: The Asian Cup scheduled for January in Saudi Arabia could be moved back a year to 2028 “if we need to”, the continent’s top football official said, following a series of Houthi attacks on the country. But AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa also said they were in “no hurry” to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56890"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56890"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56893,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56890\/revisions\/56893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}