2018 World Cup: Preliminary qualifier against Yemen postponed

FIFA delays match after earlier agreeing to allow the game behind closed doors

KARACHI: Keeping in mind the tense security situation in the city after the Lahore church bombing protest, football’s world governing body, FIFA, decided to postpone Pakistan’s 2018 World Cup preliminary qualifier second leg against Yemen at the Punjab Stadium late on Tuesday.

“Due to safety and security reasons and in coordination with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), FIFA has decided to postpone the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier match between Pakistan and Yemen which was due to be played on Tuesday, March 17, in Lahore,” read the FIFA statement. “Further details on the date of the match, which will take place in a neutral venue, will follow in due time.”

Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) secretary Ahmed Yar Khan Lodhi stated that FIFA had earlier agreed to go on with the match and later decided to postpone it to prevent any unfortunate incident.

“FIFA gave us a few conditions, out of which one of them was to hold the match without letting the spectators in the stadium and we had agreed to it,” Lodhi told The Express Tribune. “But then they decided to postpone it which I think is for the best.”

PFF Marketing Director Sardar Naveed Haider Khan said that it is a drawback and a most unfortunate incident adding that the federation has been preparing to hold this match for months and were expecting at least 10,000 people to come to see the match, while PTV had also agreed to telecast it live.

“It’s disappointing and it has hurt us both financially and professionally,” said Khan. “There is no one to blame. FIFA took the decision knowing what was happening on the streets of Lahore and kept this in mind that the mob can turn to the stadium too.”

Loss of more than $3,000

According to Khan, the unfortunate political unrest in the country has cost the federation more than $3,000 in television rights to the visiting countries.

He confirmed that the AFC U23 Championship that was scheduled to take place on March 23 at the Punjab Stadium has also been cancelled and the team will not host the Group B matches between Kuwait, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan anymore.

“It’s a huge loss,” said Khan. “We’ll bear the loss of more than $3,000 because of the postponement. This would have been a great platform for people to see the national side live. For now we just have to go with the flow.”

It happened for the best: Kaleemullah

Key striker Kaleemullah said that it is disappointing and disturbing for the players to go through the decision, but at the end of the day the team is relieved.

“The confusion and the wait is disturbing us,” said Kaleemullah. “We had made up our mind to play the match and we were preparing for it for weeks. However, we’re also relieved at the same time.”

The Chaman-based striker said that playing without the crowd at the stadium was not a good option either, but with the delay the team will have more time to prepare.

“If we were to play without the spectators then it wouldn’t have been really a home advantage,” said Kaleemullah. “This is a blessing in disguise as now we’ll get to relax. We couldn’t have performed our best with the law-and-order situation outside. And the pitch wasn’t so good either. Now we will play without any fear at a neutral venue.”

 

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