Viral outbreak causes relocation of Olympic qualifiers

The Chinese Football Association (CFA) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) today agreed to move the coming women’s Olympic football qualifier tournament from central Chinese city Wuhan to eastern Chinese city Nanjing following an outbreak of the new coronavirus.

“The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has agreed to the proposal by the Chinese Football Association (CFA) to move the…Asian Qualifiers Final Round – Group B from Wuhan to Jiangning Football Training Centre in Nanjing,” said the AFC in a statement.

The tournament will take place on its scheduled time, between February 3 and 9. Four teams, China, Australia, Thailand and Chinese Taipei will be competing for the two top spots.

Nine people have died so far from viral outbreak.

The four teams in Group A were South Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Vietnam and Myanmar until the DPRK decided to quit the tournament. The top 2 teams of each group will then attend the final qualifiers to decide which two teams will join the host Japan to participate the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

A total of 473 cases of a new strain of coronavirus that causes pneumonia have been confirmed in China as of today.

Nine people have died from the virus so far.

In response to the coronavirus outbreak, the CFA reached out to multiple domestic local football associations to see which city can take over. There were also plans of hosting the qualifiers in enclosed stadiums in Wuhan or moving it out of China.

In the end, the Chinese team managed to play at home. They will meet Thailand first on February 3, then take on Chinese Taipei on February 6. On February 9, China will play their biggest rival, Australia.