According to the UAE Al-Ittihad newspaper, two Group A teams Iraq and Syria may well lose the chance of playing their home matches in their own country.

Ittihad quoted informed sources in the Asian Football Confederation headquarters, the AFC has asked Iraq and Syria to nominate alternative venues for their home matches in the third qualifying round of the FIFA  World Cup Qatar 2022 in a neutral country.  According to the newspaper, security issues and the coronavirus situation of the two countries are factors that influenced the denying of the hosting and requirement to nominate other countries for holding their home matches.

The final decision has to be resolved by the end of July (less than another month), as the third round qualifiers start on 2nd September. However, FIFA has stated that countries in each group cannot nominate their group rivals venues to host home matches. Al-Ittihad also stated that the president of the Syrian Football Federation has begun negotiations to select an Arab country to host on neutral ground. Reflecting on the news, Iraqi journalist Ali Nouri also protested against the decision by FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation and called on the Minister of Sports, Adnan Darjal, and the Iraqi Federation’s normalization committee to pursue the issue of hosting Iraq on its own soil. Iran, South Korea, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and the UAE are in the Group of the third round FIFA World Cup qualifiers. This report does not mention the name of Iran and the issue of its hosting.