Late on Monday night, news filtered through that the United Arab Emirates FA had sent a communique to the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) that it would not be able to host the 2023 edition of the WAFF Championship, slated to run from March 20th to April 2nd.
The tournament itself was dodged by several controversies in the lead up to it. It’s awkward timing meant a draw was not held for fear that teams grouped together at the Asian Cup Finals (since delayed from summer 2023 to winter 2024 after Qatar were awarded hosting rights) would face off in the WAFF Championship.
Then came Qatar’s decision to withdraw from the tournament which was followed by reports that Iraq were considering doing the same.
The tournament which used to be held once every two years since its inception in 2000 until 2013/14. Since then the tournament has been held only once, by Iraq, in 2019.
The bloc of 12 Arab countries that now make up the regional sub confederation have never contested a tournament with full participation. The last two tournaments featured 9 teams- the 2023 edition would have been the first to feature the United Arab Emirates whose participation is now under serious doubt.
What Happens Next?
There has yet to be a clearly delineated plan of action following the surprise announcement from the UAE. As such, the tournament could be held in March in an alternate location (Jordan have hosted three tournaments and Iraq hosts of the 2019 edition have been rumored as possible candidates) postponed to September or outright cancelled.
The tournament itself was to be an important testing ground for several nations ahead of the 2023 Asian Cup finals. If the tournament does not go ahead as planned then Palestine could possibly go without friendlies in an international window yet again. The last time Palestine played a friendly was in September 2021- they have not played a friendly in the last five international windows and in the unofficial pre-World Cup window.
