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The Socceroos’ World Cup campaign has been put on hold yet again – with a big possiblity it will collide with the A-League as 2021 scheduling becomes a nightmare.
On Wednesday FIFA announced the upcoming qualifying matches for the 2022 World Cup and 2023 Asian Cup have been postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Australia are currently at the top of Group B. The Aussies are two points clear and have a game in hand on second-placed Kuwait.
The games were scheduled to be played in March before being moved to Nepal.
Those fixtures had since been switched to October but now will be played in 2021. The Socceroos have two games remaining against Chinese Taipei and Jordan.
“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,” FIFA said in a statement.
“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.”
FIFA have planned for games to commence in March 2021. However speculation is FIFA could schedule games to be played in January.
A January window could place current Socceroos Rhyan Grant of Sydney FC, new Macarthur FC signing Adam Federici and Western United defender Josh Risdon all in a club v country battle, were the domestic season to continue through the international period.