Up against it
AFC running out of time to complete World Cup qualifiers
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 and June.
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 leaves 14 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 from June 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 many outside Qatar and the United Arab Emirates) can take up to 12 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 have 14 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 every window so we will be playing a 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 and Japan. 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
“2021 is going to be crazy and that’s if everything goes well”
example, is squeezing 38 games into a season that is a month shorter than usual. To have the likes of Son Heung-min tearing around European pitches and then facing mammoth trips all around Asia is not going to keep the continent’s star player fresh. His international boss, Paulo Bento, needs him just as much – if not more so – as his club boss, Jose Mourinho.
Some teams are better off than others. Australia have been perfect so far in the second round and would really have to slip up not to finish top and go to the next stage. They may be able to take things a little easier than some others such as South Korea. The Taeguk Warriors should end up topping their group but still have work to do as, after draws with North Korea and Lebanon, they are behind Turkmenistan.
China, eight points behind Syria, are already out of the running for first and hoping to secure a best runner-up spot. In normal times, the Chinese Super
League would stop for the best part of a month for the final four clashes. That may not be possible now but that is a problem for next year – as is everything else.
It should be pointed out that this hectic schedule depends on there being no further waves of coronavirus. A full to bursting calendar may be demanding but it is better than none at all.