In a new development that would cheer football fans, Saudi Arabia’s club football teams would travel to Qatar for their away matches in the AFC Champions League beginning next month, it emerged yesterday.
Saudi authorities were earlier adamant their clubs would only play against Qatari sides on neutral territory.
They were also lobbying the Asian Football Federation (AFC) to either have the home and away format of the tournament changed or accept their demand for neutral venues for matches involving Qatari and Saudi club sides.
But in a tweet yesterday, Saudi Arabia’s General Sports Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh said he had no objection to his country’s club teams travelling to Qatar for their Asian Champions League matches and that he had nothing to do with politics.
This softening of stance augurs well for the tournament, which earlier had seemed in jeopardy because of Saudi Arabia’s adamant attitude.
Saudi Arabia’s change of position comes after the AFC refused to accede to their demands. The AFC had sent a delegation to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE last month led by its senior vice-president Praful Patel.
During his meetings, Patel had made it clear that there was no question of the format of the tournament being changed.
Despite that Saudi Arabia and UAE kept hoping that the AFC would accede to their demand of playing their clubs’ matches involving Qatari teams in Kuwait, without any success. Kuwait, too, has denied they have got any request from Saudi Arabia to host any matches.
Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal have been slotted with Qatar’s Al Rayyan in Group D of the AFC Champions League beginning February 12. Qatar’s Al Sadd figure in Group C along with the UAE’s Al Wasl, while in Group B Qatar’s Al Duhail are pitted against UAE’s Al Wahda.
As the tournament progresses, other Saudi clubs could also be pitted against Qatari teams, depending on their performances in the group stage.
