World Soccer - UK (2020-11)

There was some jealousy in Asia

when, on August 25, European

coaches started naming squads for

the Nations League. There hasn’t

been any Asian international action

since last November and won’t be any

until March – at least that is the hope.

“2021 is going to be crazy and

that’s if everything goes well,” said one

Asian Football Confederation (AFC)

official in August. It was just after the

organisation decided to postpone the

four 2022 World Cup qualifiers that

were supposed to take place in

October and November to 2021,

games that had already been pushed

back from March andJune.

Coronavirus has played havoc

with Asia’s World Cup qualification, a

campaign that should be approaching

the final stages by now. Instead, 40

Asian teams are still on the road

to Qatar in the second round of

qualification. The eight group winners

will progress to the third stage along

with the four best runners-up. That

final dozen will be divided into two

groups of six with the top two from

each going to the World Cup – and

then there are play-offs too.

At this point we should have a

decent idea of which teams would

make Qatar. The original schedule

would have seen Asia halfway through

the final round of qualification by the

end of 2020. Instead there are still

four games remaining in the second

stage. That leaves14 qualifiers and

four play-offs still to be negotiated.

It won’t end by next summer as was the

plan. Those extra months given by the

2022 World Cup’s controversial switch

fromJune to November are going to

come in very useful.

It all leaves a lot of football to

squeeze into 2021 and it is unlikely to

happen. Unlike Europe, where there are

fewer games in qualification to start

with, it is not so easy to add extra

matchdays to FIFA windows in Asia.

Travel is the toughest challenge. Four

years ago, Australia racked up around

250,000 kilometres on the road to

Russia. Direct flights between east and

west Asia (of which there aren’t that

manyoutsideQatarandtheUnited

Arab Emirates) can take up to12 hours.

Federations are bracing themselves

with Australia, as always, facing more

challenges than most. In 2021,

Socceroos coach Graham Arnold

also has the Copa America and

the Tokyo Olympics to fit in.

“Next year we may have14 World

Cup qualifiers and what’s ahead of us

will be the toughest qualifying programme

we have ever had, no doubt about that,

but we are very confident and looking

forward to the challenge,” Arnold said.

“This time we will have two matches at

everywindowsowewillbeplayinga

lot more football at home and abroad.

Which is why depth will be more

important than it has ever been.”

Arnold is correct to be concerned.

Australia have important players in

Europe, as do his counterparts in Iran,

South Korea andJapan. These players,

often the best that Asia have to offer,

are going to come under strain as will

the relationships between club and

Asian national team coaches.

The English Premier League, for

Up against it

AFC running out of time to

complete World Cup qualifiers

Asia World Cup Qualifiers

JOHN DUERDEN

Leaders...Australia

have a100% record

so far in qualifying

In-form...Japan

forward Takumi

Minamino has five

goals in qualifying

“2021 is going to be

crazy and that’s if

everything goes well”