“The June match against North Korea is not possible due to scheduling. The FIFA disciplinary committee will decide.”
Former Japan Football Association (JFA) president Kozo Tajima explained to reporters at his final press conference as he wrapped up his term on Wednesday that the World Cup qualifier against North Korea was “abruptly canceled”.
The JFA held a ceremony at JFA House on Wednesday to inaugurate Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, 47, a former national team captain, as the new president of the JFA. Miyamoto, a former national captain in his “40s” who played a masked battle with a broken nose at the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, became the 15th president of the 스포츠토토 JFA. .
As the term of the 14th president of the Japan Football Association, Kozo Tajima, expired in March of this year, the JFA appointed Miyamoto, who received a majority of votes in an extraordinary board meeting last December, as the next president.
Tajima, who became the ‘full-time president’ on the day, commented on the bizarre incident in which Japan’s trip to Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Stadium, scheduled for March 26, was suddenly canceled five days before the match, saying, “On the morning of the home match on the 21st, I received a letter from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) saying, ‘Pyongyang cannot be held. We regret to inform you five days before the tournament,’ and gave North Korea until 3 p.m. Malaysia time to propose a neutral site for the match, after which it would be the responsibility of North Korea.” “We were disappointed that this happened five days before the match, but we were waiting for the outcome,” he said. “On the afternoon of the 22nd, Pyongyang told us that the match was not possible, and on the evening of the 22nd, we were informed that there was no alternative venue,” he told AFC.
“We already have two games scheduled for June, so it’s impossible to reschedule around this time. It is up to the FIFA Disciplinary Committee to decide how to handle this aspect,” he explained.
“I am grateful that we won the last official match of my term,” former president Kozo Tajima said in his final remarks, referring to the 1-0 home win over North Korea on Nov. 21.
A series of media outlets, including Japan Football Zone, cited Tajima’s comments and ran the headline “Pyongyang tumult, June match against North Korea canceled… Forfeit possible.”