FIFA cancels North Korea-Japan match

The Fédération internationale de football association (FIFA) canceled the North Korea-Japan match for the second qualifying round of the 2026 North and Central America World Cup Asia, which was originally scheduled to be held in Pyongyang. On Saturday, FIFA decided that the qualifying fixture shall neither be played nor rescheduled” because North Korea couldn’t find an alternative venue and date.

“The match between North Korea and Japan scheduled for Monday was canceled because North Korea couldn’t come up with an alternative venue and date,” FIFA announced on Sunday. FIFA referred North Korea to the disciplinary committee and ruled that North Korea forfeited the match 0-3.

This put Japan to gain all four wins (12 points) in Group B of the second qualifying round of the World Cup Asia and secured a ticket to the final qualifying round, which goes to the top two teams in each group, regardless of the results of the remaining two games. With one win and three losses (three points), North Korea is placed in third in Group B but may be ranked at the bottom, depending on the result of the match between Syria (four points) and Myanmar (one point) on Tuesday.

North Korea lost 0-1 in the third group match against Japan on Thursday in Tokyo. On the following day, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced that “The Pyongyang match scheduled on Tuesday will not be held. North Korea notified us two days ago that the game would have to be played at a neutral venue due to inevitable circumstances.” North Korea has home games remaining in the second round of the World Cup qualifiers against Syria and Myanmar in June.


Hong-Gu Kang windup@donga.com