Recommendation to cancel the AFC Cup
The AFC Executive Committee will consider, in its videoconference Thursday, the Competitions Committee's recommendation regarding canceling the AFC Cup 2020 competition, due to the repercussions of the new Corona virus.
A member of the Executive Committee and President of the Lebanese Federation, Hashem Haidar, said in an interview with Agence France-Presse: "The Executive Committee's recommendation to cancel the tournament due to the large-scale outbreak of the Corona virus will be presented to the meeting of the Competitions Committee, as this matter will be voted on."
The competition committee’s recommendations are often approved by the executive committee.
The tournament had stopped after two rounds of the first round last March, due to the outbreak of "Covid-19".
The Confederation tried to resume the tournament, using the grouping system, with matches to be held between October and November.
It was agreed that Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan would host the Western groups, and Vietnam the sixth and seventh groups, but none of the countries had come forward to host the rest of the groups (the fourth, fifth, eighth and ninth).
The Confederation revealed in a book addressed to the national federations whose clubs participate in the tournament that it had received a request from its Bahraini counterpart to postpone the holding of the first group competitions, which includes the host teams Manama, the Lebanese reigning champion, the Palestinian Crescent of Jerusalem and the Syrian army.
The book stated, "Following the announcement of the postponement of the AFC competitions during the months of March and April, the federation plans to resume the Federation Cup matches after intensive discussions with the member federations and other major stakeholders in order to complete the new format and dates for the competition that will be played despite the presence of multiple restrictions in place due to The epidemic is rampant on a global scale. "
He added, "There have been no concerns about hosting each of the sixth, seventh and eighth groups in the ASEAN region, in addition to the AFC being unable to finalize the identification of the two host federations for the fourth group - the middle and the ninth - east, while the Bahraini federation, the host of the first group, demanded that The competition will be postponed to 2021. "
"Based on the aforementioned challenges, the AFC will refer the issue to the relevant committees to study and decide on it, and what results from that will be communicated, in turn, with its content with the member federations."
The Lebanese Al-Ahed was crowned champion in the last version by beating the North Korean April 25 1-0 in the final match hosted by the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, instead of Pyongyang.
Follow our latest local and sports news, and the latest political and economic developments via Google news