Coronavirus threatens Bangladesh’s FIFA, AFC matches with Afghanistan, Qatar

Bangladesh national football team’s FIFA World Cup 2022 and AFC Cup 2023 qualification matches against Afghanistan and Qatar scheduled for this month are now under coronavirus threat.

Bangladesh is schedule to play Afghanistan in their home match on 26 March at Sylhet Stadium while Bangladesh will also play their away match in Qatar on 31 March.

Meanwhile, the FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) met at the home of FIFA in Zurich, Switzerland to discuss football activities in Asia for virus effect and they made a statement on upcoming Asian FIFA World Cup Qualifiers on Thursday

For both FIFA and the AFC, the security and health of all individuals involved in football matches remains the highest priority, and as such, a formal proposal to postpone upcoming matches of the FIFA World Cup 2022 and AFC Asian Cup 2023 joint qualifiers will be shared with the relevant member associations.

FIFA and the AFC will provide an update on these fixtures in the coming days following consultation with the AFC member associations.

Other topics of discussion were the women’s Olympic play-off between Korea Republic and China PR, as well as the AFC Futsal Championship Turkmenistan 2020.

FIFA will continue to monitor the situation in relation to COVID-19 in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO), the confederations and the member associations. Information on other international matches may be provided by the relevant confederation or member association.

BFF general secretary Abu Nayem Shohag on Thursday said, “FIFA made a media statement on coronavirus issue. Our national teams will sit in a meeting very soon to take decision for the upcoming matches in Sylhet and Qatar.”