FIFA has issued a statement postponing the FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifiers and AFC Asian Cup 2023 for another few months to 2012.

With this further postponement, it is difficult to envisage normal league schedules and international matches to complete by the Winter of 2022 when the Qatar World Cup is scheduled to start, assuming FIFA will not address that.

Team Melli, currently in the 3rd place of the table behind Iraq and Bahrain was scheduled to play Hong Kong on the 8th of October in the return legs.

Following is the FIFA statement:

“In light of the current COVID-19 situation in many countries, FIFA and the Asian Confederation (AFC) have jointly decided that the upcoming qualifying matches for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ and AFC Asian Cup China 2023, originally scheduled to take place during the international match windows in October and November 2020, will be rescheduled to 2021.

With the aim of protecting the health and safety of all participants, FIFA and the AFC will continue to work together to closely monitor the situation in the region and to identify new dates for the respective qualifying matches. Further details on the new dates for the next round of qualifying matches for the FIFA World Cup 2022 and Asian Cup 2023 will be announced in due course.”