North Korea withdraw from FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifiers, AFC Asian Cup 2023

They were set to play in the second leg of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers from May 31.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on Sunday, officially confirmed that North Korea have withdrawn from the FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifiers and the AFC Asian Cup 2023.

"The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has today confirmed the withdrawal of the DPR Korea Football Association from the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ and AFC Asian Cup China 2023™," their official statement read.

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However, it is yet to be clear as to what will happen in Group H of the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup. AFC have revealed that the situation is now in the hands of the sport's international governing body. "The matter will now be referred to the Organising Committee for FIFA Competitions and further details on the standings in Group H, which include current leaders Turkmenistan, centralised venue hosts Korea Republic (South Korea), Lebanon and Sri Lanka, will be announced in due course."

What happened so far

Earlier this month, South Korean news organisations had reported that AFC would ask North Korea to reconsider their decision. This was after they learnt that the DPR Korea Football Association (PRKFA) did not want to travel to South Korea and play their remaining FIFA World Cup qualifier games. Back then, PRKFA cited fears of coronavirus infection among other reasons for their decision.

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Before the onset of the global Coronavirus pandemic that has taken centre-stage across the world since 2020, North Korea and South Korea drew 0-0 in their first Group H FIFA World Cup Asian qualifier match at a virtually empty Kim Il Sung Stadium in Pyongyang on October 15, 2019.

Following the outbreak of the virus, AFC gave up the home-and-away format of the qualifiers. They decided that the five nations in each group will gather in one country to finish all of their remaining matches from May 31 to June 15, 2021. Soon after, they also chose South Korea as the host of the remaining Group H matches.

As of now, the hosts will play Turkmenistan on June 3, North Korea on June 7, Sri Lanka on June 11 and Lebanon on June 15.

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