Possible Cancellation or Relocation of the Asian Cup Hosting!

Due to the ongoing state of war, insecurity in the region and attacks on airports in Saudi Arabia, the AFC Executive Committee will review the possibility of cancelling, postponing or relocating the 2027 Asian Cup.

The Asian Nations Cup 2027 is scheduled to be hosted by Saudi Arabia from the middle of January this year. The tournament in which 24 Asian teams will participate and the grouping of the tournament was done a few months ago.

In this tournament, Iran's national football team is grouped in Group C with the teams of China, Kyrgyzstan and Syria, and Saudi Arabia is in Group A with the teams of Palestine, Oman and Kuwait. Even the tournament schedule has been announced, but now there are whispers about the possibility of canceling, postponing or even changing the hosting of these tournaments!

The story is that in recent months, due to the consequences of the war between America and Israel against Iran, flights to the countries of the Middle East region have been canceled several times, each time for several days and even several weeks.

Recently, air and missile attacks have been carried out on King Khalid Airport in Riyadh, which is considered the third largest airport in Saudi Arabia. These events have caused the concern of some countries participating in the 2027 Asian Nations Cup, and they have announced this issue to the AFC, and now the AFC Executive Committee is going to investigate this issue in an urgent and online meeting. In this meeting, Mehdi Taj will also be present as the vice president of AFC and a member of the executive committee.

The issue that has caused the concern of most of the countries participating in the Asian Nations Cup, such as Australia, South Korea, Japan, China, Uzbekistan and several other countries, is the continuation of insecurity in the region. Some media have announced the possibility of war starting again in the region in the coming months, and if such a thing happens, the worries will naturally increase.

In recent days and after the attacks on some Saudi airports, several countries have issued warnings to airlines and their citizens to be very careful when traveling to Saudi Arabia and using the country's airports.

If the war officially ends in the next few days, the Asian Nations Cup will be held as planned, but if the current situation continues, there is a possibility of canceling, postponing or changing the host of these competitions. A problem that the executive committee of AFC will examine.

In addition to canceling the competitions, one of the options is to hold the competitions with a delay, which is not a desirable or feasible option. Because the calendar of all the member federations gets messed up. The next option is to change the host, which doesn't seem logical due to the proximity of the start of the tournament. The last option is to wait until the close of the competition. If the area is calm, the competition will be held

Finally, everything depends on the decision of the AFC Executive Committee, which will be held online soon, and will determine whether or not to hold or postpone the 2027 Asian Cup.