Four days before the game, the Asian Football Confederation announced that North Korea’s home World Cup qualifier against Japan will take place on Tuesday ( Mar 26 ) at a neutral venue and not in Pyongyang.
AFC general director Windsor John told AFP on Friday that “typically it’s the responsibility of the organizing team to select the natural place, failing which the AFC will have to nominate.”
Given little time to find a location, John confirmed that the game will also taking place as planned on Tuesday.
Last month, Saudi Arabia switched Pyongyang to natural surface for the women’s playoffs for the Paris Olympics.
John did not explain why the suit in the North Vietnamese capital would not go as planned on Tuesday.
However, a report from Japanese news agency Kyodo on Thursday stated that North Korea did n’t want to hold the game due to concerns about bacterial infections there.
Officials from North Korea informed their Chinese counterparts on Thursday that they were unable to number events, without explaining why.
After the groups met in a second tournament in Tokyo, which the guests won 1 to 0, Kozo Tashima, the head of the Japanese football association, inquired during half-time if they could arrange it.
Tashima was quoted by Chinese media as saying,” I told them it was so sudden and that I cannot give them an instant yes.”
” I told them that the response time will be at least two or three days. I told them it’s hard”, he said.
The suit in Pyongyang would have been Japan’s people’s team’s first encounter in North Korea since 2011 and a eponymous international football match there.
Japan’s foreign government earlier this year issued a warning to football fans against trying to travel to the nation for the game.
On X, previously Twitter, it stated,” As you know, North Korea has a hostile view of Japan, and traveling is never recommended for the general public.”
According to journalist NHK, 14 government officials were scheduled to visit the Japan team for the game as well as a small number of press outlets.
Relations have long been strained by problems, including payment for Japan’s terrible activity of the Asian Peninsula between 1910 and 1945 and, more recently, Pyongyang’s missile launches over Chinese country.
A major source of contention has long been the Chinese people ‘ forced training by North Korean officials in Japanese customs and language.
Despite being isolated and weak, North Korea qualified for the 2010 World Cup.
But they were knocked out at the class period following three loses, including a 7- 0 beating by Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal.
They even qualified in 1966 when they reportedly beat Italy 1- 0 and made it to the quarter- championships.