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Tag Asian Football Confederation (AFC)

  • Mar, Mon, 2020
Sport

AFC to extend group phase of Asian Champions League due to coronavirus

League
Hong Kong, Mar. 2, 2020 (Reuters/NAN) Group stage matches in the Asian Champions League could be held as late as the end of July, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said on Monday.

The development came as the coronavirus outbreak continues to impact the schedule of the continent’s leading club competition.

The confederation said after an emergency meeting at its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur that provisions would be made to extend the group phase beyond its scheduled finish.

The competition was earlier scheduled to end in late May, but it may now extend until the end of June.

However, if local league and cup matches continue to be postponed in Japan, South Korea and China, provisions have been put in place to play the Asia Champions League matches as late as July.

This is to ensure the competition can be completed this year.

The confederation said it expects to have a newly updated fixture list for the group phase of the competition in place by March 16 after a meeting to be held next weekend.

The AFC announced the first leg matches in the round of 16 will now be played on Aug. 11 and Aug. 12 with the return meetings two weeks later.

The first leg of the quarter-finals will be held on September 15 and 16, while the second leg games will be played on Sept. 29 and Sept. 30.

Semi-final matches will be played on Oct. 20 and Oct. 21 with the return clashes a week later.

The dates of the two-legged final remain unchanged on Nov. 22 and Nov. 28.

The fate of a raft of World Cup qualifying matches due to be played later this month will be discussed during a meeting on March 7 and March 8.(Reuters/NAN)
STJ/JPE/OLAL
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(Edited by Joseph Edeh and Olawale Alabi)

 

Sport

Iranian women allowed to watch World Cup qualifier in stadium – official

Iran
Dubai (UAE), Aug. 25, 2019 (Reuters/NAN) Iranian women will be allowed to attend a men’s football World Cub qualifying match in the Islamic Republic of Iran in October, the official IRNA news agency quoted a Sports Ministry official as saying on Sunday.

While foreign women have been allowed limited access to matches in Iran, Iranian women have been banned from stadiums when men’s teams are playing since the Islamic revolution in 1979.

FIFA wrote to the Iranian Football Federation in June asking it to provide a timeline towards women being able to buy tickets for the qualifiers, or face consequences.

“Women can go to Tehran’s Azadi stadium to watch the match between Iran’s national team and Cambodia in October for the Qatar World Cup qualifier,” Deputy Sports Minister Jamshid Taghizadeh said.

The Asian football governing body (AFC), which has 47 members including Iran, said it was working to help FIFA find an “amicable solution” that would allow Iranian female fans to attend future games in Iran.

“There is no legal ban for women to watch the football matches in the stadium. The activation of the infrastructure is underway,” Taghizadeh said.

Iranian female fans have long campaigned to be allowed to watch men’s football and occasionally a limited number of women have been allowed into the stadium.

In June, some women were detained by security forces when they went to the Azadi Stadium for a friendly against Syria.
Last year, some women risked arrest by donning fake beards and wigs to attend a major game in the stadium. Their pictures and videos were posted on social media.

The 2022 World Cup will be held in Qatar. (Reuters/NAN)
KIA/AFA
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Edited by Felix Ajide