AFC thanks Qatar for stepping in

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has applauded Qatar for its role in hosting Champions League matches in ‘tough times’. In July, Qatar were confirmed to host the 2020 AFC Champions League matches in the West region - from the Group Stage to the semi-finals - from September 14 to October 3, 2020. Matches will be played at the iconic Khalifa International Stadium, Al Janoub Stadium and Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, all venues of the 2022 FIFA World Cup to be staged in Qatar. 

“I would like to thank QFA for hosting the matches in tough times,” Avazbek Berdikulov, Deputy Director of Competitions and Footballs Events Division, AFC, said yesterday at a news conference at Al Janoub Stadium. 

“We are happy to be here. We are about to start the event. The football infrastructure in Qatar is unmatched. We last played active football in February. It’s been seven months since then. After holding detailed discussions with all stakeholders, we are ready to resume AFC competitions,” Berdikulov said. 

“We understand that Qatar put in a lot of efforts to organise this. We thank them for their professional role. After postponing the matches, the AFC agreed on new dates. Once we agreed on the dates, we opened the process to reschedule matches and decide on host venues. Qatar came up with a nice proposal. Qatar infrastructure has no match. 

“We, as AFC, are really happy to have those (World Cup) facilities for our matches. We have great support from MOPH, SC, QFA and QSL. We are staying in a bio-secure environment. We also took note that QSL resumed football sometime back. This also helped us to see the hosting of football matches as a success. AFC always likes to have their matches hosted here. Qatar is an active participant in our events calendar. We really appreciate their support,” Berdikulov added. 

“The MOPH has given us instructions and we are following them. We want to thank the organizers for putting great efforts to host the matches at the venues. Let’s make sure that we have something special even in these challenging circumstances.” he said. The AFC official said no fans will be allowed to watch the matches. “There won’t be any fans at the matches but we have the media participating here.  We have developed a protocol for having fans at our matches. There are three scenarios that we look at: No fans, partial fans or fans entering stadiums as normal. There are strict conditions to match these scenarios. We are trying to minimise the risks. For partial fans, arrangements should be here. Qatar has already done that. In the third scenario to take shape, there should be no positive cases for a long time in a country,” Berdikulov said. 

“We would like football not to be seen as the reason for the spread of the virus. Our main priority was to resume football. This is our first priority. So the entire event will have no fans. Spectators of other teams are also not travelling. At the moment, the official position of AFC is no fans for the entire event,” he added. 

“The five substitutions rule will apply in all the matches to be played in Qatar. FIFA also made amendments in the laws so we will have the five sub rule in this competition,” he said. “We have dedicated the resumption of football to all those fighting the pandemic. We have titled our campaign “football for heroes”. We really consider everyone a hero in these times,” Berdikulov said. 

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Ali Al Salat, representing QFA, said yesterday: “We are hosting this press conference in exceptional circumstances. The football family knows that QFA was in communication with AFC to prepare for this competition. We have top-notch and secure facilities to host the West Zone matches. We have been granted to host the matches after detailed discussions with all stakeholders - the AFC, QFA, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy and the QSL. We also have complete cooperation with the Ministry of Interior and MOPH.” 

Al Salat added: “The event is being hosted at our new World Cup stadiums. We hope this will be an exciting event despite the fact that we are coping with tough times around the world. This will be a unique experience for members of the local organizing committee as Qatar continues to prepare for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.”

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