“AFC continues to communicate with North Korea…There are no signs of absence yet”
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(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Young-ho = “I know that the Asian Football Federation (AFC) continues to communicate with North Korea. There are still no special signs of absence from the World Cup qualifiers.”
With North Korea’s declaration of absence from the Tokyo Olympics, interest is also being drawn on whether to participate in the 5th to 8th rounds of the 2nd round of the 2022 Qatar World Cup in Asia scheduled in June.
According to the homepage of’Chosun Sports’ run by the North Korean Ministry of Sports on the 6th, the Joseon Olympic Committee held a general meeting on the 25th of last month and decided not to participate in the Tokyo Olympics to protect athletes from the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19).
The Korea Football Association, which is preparing for the second qualifying round of the 2022 Qatar World Cup in Asia in June, is also keenly keenly as North Korea declared it absent from the Olympics due to the’global health crisis situation’ caused by Corona 19.
The AFC has decided to play all the remaining matches in Group H (Korea, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Lebanon, Sri Lanka) in the World Cup Asian region, which has been postponed due to Corona 19 so far.
There is already speculation that North Korea is giving up the World Cup by declaring the absence of the Tokyo Olympics since the AFC decided on the 12th of last month as the venue for the remaining Group H matches of the World Cup qualifiers in South Korea. .
In response, an official from the Football Association said, “I know that AFC is constantly communicating with the Korean Football Association in North Korea.” “I’m watching.”
He said, “The North Korean side has always been slow to respond to issues related to participation in the tournament. There is no negative situation regarding North Korea’s participation in the World Cup qualifiers yet.” Explained.
“It is regrettable that the Korean Football Association official, who had worked at the AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, returned to Korea, and communication was not smooth when Malaysia broke up with North Korea, but we know that they continue to contact us using social network services (SNS), etc.” Added.
However, the AFC is also preparing countermeasures for North Korea’s absence as it is in a situation where it is no longer possible to postpone the second qualifying round of the World Cup.
An official from the Football Association said, “If North Korea does not attend, there will be a situation where the previous matches will have to be forfeited. If all five games played by North Korea (2 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss) are forfeited, it will inevitably affect the Group H ranking. “Do” he said.
North Korea has scored 8 points against Lebanon (1 win 1 draw), Sri Lanka (1 win), South Korea (1 draw), and Turkmenistan (1 loss). The Football Association explained that countries that did not properly score victory points against North Korea in the previous game may benefit.
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2021/04/06 11:55 sent