Japan FA president warns Asian Cup 2027 postponement risk is high as Saudi hosts ask for time

Japan Football Association (JFA) president Tsuneyasu Miyamoto has warned that the risk of the 2027 Asian Cup being postponed remains very high because the security situation in Saudi Arabia is still unsettled. He spoke to reporters after the Asian Football Confederation's Extraordinary Congress in Tokyo on 23 October 2026, Thanh Niên and Bongda24h reported. No official decision has been taken to postpone the tournament, which is scheduled to run from 7 January to 5 February 2027 with 24 teams.

According to Thanh Niên, Miyamoto said that, based on what he had seen in news reports, the situation was not yet safe, and that he did not think staging the Asian Cup there would be easy at this point. The paper also reports him saying that the risk of a postponement was very high.

Hosts ask for more time

Miyamoto said he had met Saudi officials. As Bongda24h relays his account, the hosts said their top priority was the safety of players, fans and everyone attending, that they would work with the AFC to decide whether the tournament can go ahead, and that they needed more time to reach a decision. Dân trí describes it as the Saudi federation asking the AFC for more time. Bongda24h's report is republished from Thể thao & Văn hóa.

The local organisers, for their part, still believe the event can be held safely and on time, Thanh Niên says. They point to the Saudi Pro League, where most matches are going ahead normally: only 4 games have been postponed since the instability in the Middle East began, and just 1 in round 10.

The options on the table

AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa had earlier said that moving the tournament to 2028 was an option if necessary, though the local organisers then insisted on the original schedule, according to Bongda24h and to Thanh Niên, which cited Reuters. Dân trí highlights two obstacles. An Asian Cup in early 2028 would clash with the 2028 AFC U23 Asian Cup finals, which double as qualifying for the Los Angeles Olympics that year. Moving the event to another country is not realistic either, since no country has offered to replace Saudi Arabia and the opening date is too close.

Former JFA president Tajima Kozo, now the association's honorary president, urged the AFC's Organising and Competitions committees to assess the situation before making a final call. He said even sending an inspection team from Japan had not been possible, Thanh Niên reports, and hoped things would improve before the extraordinary meeting of the AFC Executive Committee in Thailand in November, where a decision on whether to go ahead is expected.

Vietnam wait and prepare

Vietnam are in Group E with the UAE, South Korea and Yemen. According to Thanh Niên, their current schedule is (Vietnam time):

Head coach Kim Sang-sik returned to Hanoi on 24 October after a short break in South Korea to start preparations, Thanh Niên reported. The paper lists his selection problems: Đình Bắc is suspended for the first two games against the UAE and South Korea, Hoàng Hên faces a long lay-off and Xuân Son has only just recovered from injury. The friendlies it mentions are against Chinese Taipei and Kyrgyzstan in November, Japan in December and Qatar in January.

The key dates, compiled by KBVN+ from these reports:

All of Vietnam's planning is built around that opening date. If the tournament is pushed back, the preparation plan will have to be redrawn.

What comes next

A final decision is expected at the AFC Executive Committee's extraordinary meeting in Thailand in November. Until then, Vietnam are preparing for the published schedule. Read more in Asian Cup 2027: no postponement decision yet, Vietnam keep waiting and AFC confirms Vietnam's Asian Cup 2027 kick-off times, and follow our Vietnam national team fixtures page.