The Iranian Football Federation FFIRI, along with eight other Asian countries, has called for the postponement of international matches held in the FIFA World Cup qualifying stages due to the outbreak of Corona.

The UAE’s Al-Etihad newspaper said in a special statement today that nine Asian countries have requested a postponement of the World Cup qualifier in a letter to FIFA. Malaysia, Iran, Japan, China, Thailand, South Korea, Guam, Sri Lanka, and Mongolia have all called for their national team matches to be postponed due to the spread of the Coronavirus.

FIFA will decide on these requests on Thursday this week, after an emergency committee meeting. Iran’s national football team are scheduled to meet Hong Kong in Azadi and away to Cambodia in the second round of the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar qualifiers. While Hong Kong has announced that it will not travel to Iran, the Cambodian media also have found it difficult for Iran to visit them. As conditions are becoming critical, FIFA is increasingly coming under pressure to delay the World Cup qualifying matches until the conditions stabilize and the public confidence is restored.