AFC president thanks QFA for hosting AFC Champions League

Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifah, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President, yesterday thanked the Qatar Football Association (QFA) for their willingness to host the return of the AFC Champions League in the West region. Qatar will hold the West region matches of the AFC Champions League from the group stage to the semi-finals, which will take place from September 14 to October 3, 2020.At the AFC Executive meeting, held online, the AFC President congratulated everyone involved in the hard work that has been required to ensure that the AFC Champions League Group Stage West region and knockout rounds can go ahead safely. Sheikh Salman said: “A huge amount of work has been undertaken to ensure these matches can kick off on September 14 and the AFC has been extremely professional in ensuring that the matches can go ahead and go ahead safely.“These matches will be dedicated to our frontline health and care workers who have been the real stars in recent months. The return of football is something to celebrate and so is the contribution of the frontline workers.“It gives some hope to see football back and there has been great work in putting in place the necessary protocols and procedures to keep everyone safe, so we are taking the first steps. We will also work closely with all the stakeholders in Asia and with FIFA to ensure that football continues.”Members of the Committee congratulated Sheikh Salman and the AFC for keeping the football world ‘moving forward’ and also thanked the Qatar FA for hosting the matches in the coming month. Under the banner of #FootballforHeroes, the AFC Champions League (West) will be played under special rules to reflect the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and these include AFC and Host Country Medical Protocols, temperature checks on entry to the Stadium and testing.A sub-committee of the AFC Competitions Committee has been formed to make any necessary decisions in urgent matters which relate to the centralised competition. It is intended that a similar Committee will be formed in due course for the AFC Champions League East Zone matches which are now scheduled to be played between November 15 and December 13, 2020.The Executive Committee also agreed that the final of the AFC Champions League will be played in the West Zone on December 19, 2020 – in a single match rather than in the traditional home and away format. The AFC Futsal Championship will now be staged in Kuwait but shall be moved from the original dates in November to new dates between December 2-13 to allow Member Associations time to prepare themselves for the competition.The AFC Executive Committee recognised that the pandemic has affected the ability of the AFC to deliver its competitions. With this in mind and taking into consideration the need to prioritise the welfare of young players, as well as the travel and health challenges, the AFC U-16 and AFC U-19 Championships, scheduled for Bahrain and Uzbekistan, have been postponed until early 2021.In view of the logistics in coordinating the five zones of the AFC Cup and completing the Inter Zone matches, the AFC Executive Committee also agreed that the pandemic created complexities which constituted a Force Majeure event and, with sadness, led to the cancellation of the 2020 competition.The AFC Solidarity Cup has also been cancelled because of the Force Majeure event and will now be played in 2024 and the AFC Futsal Club Championship UAE 2020 will be cancelled with the United Arab Emirates hosting the next event in 2021.Al Wahda unable to travel to DohaAl Wahda have informed the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) that they are unable to travel to Qatar to compete in the AFC Champions League (West), where they currently occupy second place in Group A, after several members of the club tested positive for Covid-19.The AFC has written to the United Arab Emirates Football Association (UAE FA) to inform them that the request by the UAE FA and the club for a postponement of the Group matches cannot be accommodated because of the advanced preparations in which many teams have already travelled to Qatar for the competition.The matter will now be referred to the relevant AFC Committees for a decision in accordance with the applicable regulations.