March 11 – FIFA’s suspension of Kuwait, which caused the Gulf state to be banned from voting at the recent presidential election, has again hit the Asian World Cup qualifying campaign with the upcoming fixture against South Korea called off.
Kuwait were banned by FIFA in October after failing to amend the country’s sports law to prevent government interference in the national football body.
The country was told that the South Korea match would be scrapped unless it complied with the rules by March 10, a KFA official said. The pair were scheduled to meet on March 29 in Daegu, 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, in their final match of the second Asian qualifying round for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
“The time has passed and we haven’t been notified by FIFA that the ban is lifted, so we decided to see the game as cancelled for now,” said the official.
It was unclear how points were to be awarded or what part Kuwait might play in the rest of the qualifying phase. The country has already had to forfeit their fixture against Myanmar last November.
A request to lift the Kuwait suspension at last month’s FIFA electoral congress was voted down, with the case delayed until the next Congress in May. But that will be too late for Kuwait to take part in the Asian World Cup campaign.
The KFA has now contacted Southeast Asian teams, including Thailand, to try to set up a friendly in place of the qualifier.
South Korea, who next play Lebanon at home on March 24, lead Group G in Asian qualifying on 18 points. Kuwait are second on 10 points, ahead of third-placed Lebanon on goal difference.
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