Kuala Lumpur: DPRK’s home qualifier against Japan on Tuesday will be held at a neutral venue and not in Pyeongchang, the Asian Football Confederation said four days before the match.
“Normally it is the host team’s responsibility to nominate a neutral venue, otherwise the AFC will have to nominate,” AFC general secretary Windsor John told AFP on Friday.
John confirmed that the game will still go ahead as scheduled on Tuesday, so there is little time to find a seat. The Japan-North Korea women’s play-off for the Paris Olympics was moved from Pyeongchang to neutral ground in Saudi Arabia last month. John did not say why Tuesday’s match in the North Korean capital will not take place as originally planned.
However, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported on Thursday that North Korea did not want to host the match due to concerns about bacterial infections in Japan.
North Korean officials told their Japanese counterparts on Thursday that they could not play host, without saying why.
“They asked us at half-time if we could organize it in Japan,” Japan Football Association chief Kozo Tashima said after the teams met in the first qualifier in Tokyo, which the hosts won 1-0.
“I told them it was so sudden and I couldn’t give them an immediate yes,” Japanese media quoted Tashi as saying.
“I told them it would take us at least two or three days (to answer). I told them it was difficult,” he said.The game in Pyeongchang would be the Japanese men’s team’s first game in North Korea since 2011 and a rare international football match in North Korea.
Earlier this week, Japan’s foreign ministry warned soccer fans not to attempt to travel to the country for the match.
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“As you know, North Korea takes a hostile view of Japan and travel is not recommended for the general public,” it said on X, formerly Twitter.
Fourteen government officials and a small number of media were to accompany the Japanese team to the match, NHK television reported.
Relations have long been dogged by issues, including reparations for Japan’s brutal occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945 and, more recently, Pyongyang’s firing of missiles over Japanese territory.
The abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s – forced to train spies in Japanese language and customs – has also long been a major point of contention.
Despite being isolated and poor, North Korea qualified for the 2010 World Cup. After three defeats, including a 7-0 defeat by Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, they were eliminated in the group stage.
They also qualified in 1966, famously beating Italy 1-0 to reach the quarter-finals.
