North Korea's home World Cup qualifier against Japan on Tuesday will be held at a neutral venue rather than Pyongyang, the Asian Football Confederation announced four days before the match.
“Normally it is the responsibility of the hosting team to nominate a neutral venue, and if that is not possible the AFC must nominate one,” AFC general secretary Windsor John told AFP on Friday. .
John confirmed the match would go ahead as scheduled on Tuesday, but there was little time to find a venue.
The women's playoff between Japan and North Korea at the Paris Olympics was moved last month from Pyongyang to a neutral site in Saudi Arabia.
Jong did not say why Tuesday's game would not be held in the North Korean capital as originally scheduled.
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However, Japan's Kyodo News reported on Thursday that North Korea did not want to hold the match, citing fears of bacterial infection in Japan.
North Korean officials told Japanese officials on Thursday that they could not play host, without giving reasons.
Japan Football Association president Kozo Tajima said after the two teams played in the first qualifying round in Tokyo, with the hosts winning 1-0, “during halftime, I was asked if it would be possible to hold the tournament in Japan.'' Ta.
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Japanese media reported Mr. Tajima's remarks, saying, “I told him that it was too sudden to say yes right away.''
“I told them it would take at least two or three days (for an answer). I told them it would be difficult,” he said.
The match in Pyongyang will be the Japan men's national team's first match in North Korea since 2011, and is a rare international soccer match in North Korea.
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Earlier this week, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned soccer fans not to attempt to travel to Japan for the match.
“As you know, North Korea views Japan as an enemy, and travel by the general public is not recommended,'' the paper said on X (formerly Twitter).
NHK reported that 14 government officials and a small number of media were scheduled to attend the match.
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Relations between the two countries have long been plagued by issues such as compensation for Japan's brutal occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945 and more recently North Korea's missile launches over Japanese territory.
The abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s, who forced them to learn the Japanese language and customs, has also long been a hot topic of contention.
Despite being isolated and poor, North Korea qualified for the 2010 World Cup.
However, they suffered three consecutive losses, including a 7-0 loss to Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal national team, and were eliminated in the group stage.
They also qualified in 1966, famously beating Italy 1-0 to reach the quarter-finals.
