Taking into consideration the existing travel and quarantine restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic across the continent and following a process of close consultation with Asia’s Member Associations, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and FIFA have jointly agreed to postpone the majority of the upcoming Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ and AFC Asian Cup China 2023™.
The latest match schedule for match days 7, 8 and 9 of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ and AFC Asian Cup China 2023™ Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 2, which is scheduled to take place on March 25 and 30, 2021 is as follows:
| Group | Date and Time | Match | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| D | 30 March 2021, 20:30hrs | Saudi Arabia vs Palestine | King Saud University Stadium, Riyadh |
| F | 25 March 2021, 18:00hrs | Tajikistan vs Mongolia | Republican Central Stadium, Dushanbe |
| F | 30 March 2021, 19:30hrs | Mongolia vs Japan | Fukuda Denshi Arena, Chiba, Japan |
FIFA and the AFC continue to place the health and safety of players, teams, match officials and all stakeholders as the highest priority and will work together with their member associations to closely monitor the situation in the region.
As part of efforts to ensure the safe and successful completion of the Asian Qualifiers, the AFC will open the invitation to member associations to host their respective groups in a centralised format and will confirm and communicate in due course the match schedule for the June 2021 international window, where the centralised qualifying matches are scheduled to take place from 31 May to 15 June, 2021.
Potential updates on the FIFA World Cup qualifiers will be published here on FIFA.com.