Fifa ruling good news for Thais

LONDON: Kuwait have been fined 10,000 Swiss francs (US$9,932.46) and forfeited November’s World Cup 2018 qualifier against Myanmar after failing to play the match due to a Fifa ban, soccer’s governing body said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Fifa ruling further brightens Thai national team’s chances of making it to the 12-team final Asian qualifying stage for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Thailand currently lead Group F standings with 13 points — five ahead of secondplaced Iraq who have a game in hand. Iraq’s hopes of overtaking Thailand are alive and the two sides clash in their last group encounter in Tehran in March.

Kuwait had been scheduled to play Myanmar on Nov 17 last year in their sixth fixture in Asian qualifying Group G but the Fifa ban prevents them from taking part in international events.

Kuwait are currently second in Group G with 10 points, level with Lebanon and eight behind leaders South Korea.

With the match being considered forfeited by Kuwait, the West Asian team cannot post a better points tally than the Thais. This means that Thailand have a better chance of making it to the final Asian qualifying event even if they are overtaken by Iraq in Group F.

Eight group winners and four best second-placed teams will make to the last regional battle for places at the 2018 World Cup.

The Kuwait Football Association were suspended from Fifa in October because of government interference in their local football association.

Last October, the IOC barred the small Gulf Arab country from participating in an Olympics for the second time in five years over government interference in the country’s 15-member Olympic committee.

Kuwait’s government is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages from Sheikh Ahmad Fahad al-Sabah over the Gulf state’s isolation from international sport.

The sheikh, a member of the Fifa executive committee, a top IOC member and head of Asia’s Olympic body, is one of a number of Kuwaiti officials targeted in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday.

The suit accuses Sheikh Ahmad, who also faces a separate six-month jail term, his brother Sheikh Talal Fahad al-Sabah and 13 other officials of deliberately causing the suspension of Kuwait from international sport.