North Korea’s World Cup qualifying match against Qatar, set initially to be held in Pyongyang, North Korea, has been relocated to Laos, according to a Radio Free Asia (RFA) report yesterday.
RFA reported that the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced the venue for the World Cup third qualifying match between North Korea and Qatar, set for September 10. The game will be held at the National Stadium in Vientiane, Laos, not in North Korea.
This marks the fourth time this year that North Korea has changed the venue for a home match.
In March, just days before a scheduled home match against Japan in the World Cup Asian second qualifying round, North Korea abruptly canceled the game. As a result, FIFA awarded a forfeit loss to North Korea. Following this, all subsequent home matches have been played in Laos instead of North Korea.
Before this, in February, the women’s football qualifying match for the 2024 Paris Olympics between North Korea and Japan was held in Saudi Arabia, not in Pyongyang. The exact reasons for North Korea’s inability to host home games at their location remain unclear.
The venues for North Korea’s upcoming home matches against Iran on November 14 and Uzbekistan on November 19 remain undecided. However, there is a growing likelihood that these games will be held in another country.
The last time North Korea hosted a home game was on October 15, 2019, before the pandemic, when it played against South Korea in the second qualifying round for the 2022 Qatar World Cup at the Kim Il Sung Stadium in Pyongyang.