AFC: No Letter from OCA About Redrawing in 2018 Asian Games

DBasia.news – AFC Secretary-General, Datuk Windsor John Paul, denied the issue that the redrawing will be held Friday (20/7). The issue was up since Thursday (19/7).

After the Uni Arab Emirates and Palestine protested, the redrawing plan appeared. They didn’t include in the teams drew on July 5 in Jakarta.

There were 24 countries listed in the group division of soccer for the 2018 Asian Games. The 24 countries were classified into 6 groups, consisted of 4 teams.

“As far as I concerned, there won’t be any redrawing today. We haven’t got any official letter from the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and Indonesia. Maybe it will be held at the beginning of next week,” he said to Berita Harian.

“What they told us, the redrawing will be conducted, whether for the two teams or all the teams,” he added.

The plan of redrawing got responses from some national team coaches. Ong Kim Swee, Malaysian coach wants to know about the decision soon.

This is closely related with the preparation. The coach is in doubt about the opponents.

While South Korean coach, Kim Hak-bum, said the redrawing can disturb the analysis team for opponents, considering the change.

Windsor added AFC couldn’t interfere. They just help.

“We will help. The decision is on OCA and Indonesia. So we don’t know about the redrawing,” he explained.