The Lebanese F.A. decided not to continue their Asian Qualifier games. My sourcs is http://www.elaph.com/ElaphWeb/Sports/2006/7/166136.htm The source is in Arabic...sorry. I hope this news isn't true. I wish the best for Lebanon and hope the war ends and the Lebanese people get to live their normal lives in peace...
Hm...of course they could think to abort it,but it will depends how the war between Hezbollah and Israel goes on. I don't know if Israel damaged important stadiums like Beirut Sports City or Saïda Municipality stadium.
Even if they didn't damage any stadiums it will still be risky. Plus I doubt anyone would agree to play in Lebanon with the war going on. The A.F.C gave them a chance to choose an alternative home ground but they refused. Kuwait and Bahrain both offered Lebanon a chance to practace in their countries, but I guess its hard for the players to concetrate in training or the matches with their country being bombed daily.
We were scheduled to play them on August 31.... I was on a plane recently with two 'lebanese' women (the mum was Lebanese and they went to visit her family) who had travelled hard for 7 days to get out of Beirut and after having been through Lebanon, Syria, Dubai, then into Malaysia, they were finally making their way home to Sydney. Nice people and its really sad what is going on there. Whilst you have a point AstonVilla about the amount of civilians that Israel is killing remember that the gutless swine Hezbollah purposefully deploy themselves amongst the civilians so this will happen. Not that I condone reports of Israel firing at civilian cars and even a red cross ambulance. Maybe if Hezbollah and Israel wipe each other out the middle east will be a better place. I feel for the innocents in Lebanon. Maybe if we declared huge oil reserves on the Lebanon-Israel border?
Hmmm, this makes me wonder what's gonna happen with the 2 games that were meant to be played between Australia and Lebanon. Does it just lead to a forfeit and do we play a different team or what?
As for the topic at hand, it'll be interesting to see what is done. Automatic wins for teams yet to play Lebanon is unfair to the team (I can't remember which) that already played Lebanon and drew. This is the qualifying section so there isn't really a team that can be subbed inot their place. Best solution in my opinion is to make it a 3 team group and erase the result from the game that Lebanon already played as though it hadn't been played at all.
yeah I agree with your opinion, 3 team group (Australia, Bahrain & Kuwait) and If that happens Code: 1. Australia 1 1 0 0 3-1 3 2. Kuwait 1 0 1 0 0-0 1 ------------------------------- 3. Bahrain 2 0 1 1 1-3 1
LEBANON PULL OUT OF AFC ASIAN CUP 2007 QUALIFIERS 1 August 2006 KUALA LUMPUR: Lebanon has pulled out of the AFC Asian Cup 2007 qualifiers due to the current crisis in the country. The Lebanon Football Association officially sent a withdrawal letter to the AFC on Monday, July 31, stating that they “are unable to proceed" in the AFC Asian Cup 2007 qualification rounds “due to the tragic circumstances our country and people are passing through as a result of the barbaric attack imposed on Lebanon by the Israeli Army." Lebanon drew with Kuwait 1-1 in their opening game on February 22 and were due to meet Bahrain on August 16 (Manama), with further encounters scheduled against Australia on August 31 (Sydney), Bahrain on September 6 (Beirut), Kuwait on October 11 (Kuwait City) and Australia on November 15 (Beirut). The AFC Management Board will convene an emergency meeting today to discuss the situation. http://www.the-afc.com/english/media/default.asp?mnsection=media§ion=newsDetails&newsID=6618
Pull-out? Why don't they just play abroad like the Iraqi NT has been doing for years! Iraq managed to qualify to the 1986 World Cup without playing a single home game because of the Iran-Iraq war. Anyway, InshAllah our Lebanese brothers & sisters see peace soon.
Guys we all hate whats going on between Lebanon and Israel...but please lets just discuss football here and polotics in nsr. Thank you. Anyways back to football, I think now Kuwait's chances to qualify is bigger than Bahrain because we have three games left while they only have two games left.
http://www.theworldgame.com.au/home/index.php?pid=st&cid=73784 If this is true there's no real way of getting them to play abroad either is there. Very sad.
Sarcazim? Anyways everything is possible. If we manage to beat Australia at home (very hard but also very possible) we can draw Bahrain in Manama and Qualify.
As we will have an A league based side you will have a reasonable chance. The upcoming match will tell us if our new A league has improved the strength of domestic football. Whenever we used a domestic based side in OFC we struggled against New Zealand and only just nudged out the stronger Island nations. The group is still wide open with Lebanon's withdrawal and anyone can qualify or miss out.
Mod's Note... Let's keep this topic clean of political stuff guys, and stick to the football. There's plenty of discussion on the war in the Politics forum already.
The Lebanon Basketball team will play in the upcoming FIBA World Championship and they left through Syria after hostilities began. With a ceasefire being signed right now one wonders if the withdrawal from the tournament was a bit premature. (nevertheless back in the early 80's Israel declared dozens upon dozens of ceasefires in the invasion of Lebanon and these ceasefires would only be honored for matters of hours or a few days) Lebanon is a small country with tight knit communities and I have no doubt all the players on the football team faced some sort of indirect suffering because of the hostilities. I still would have hoped that the Lebanese football team could've attempted to play out the rest of the qualifiers and maybe have the August 16th game against Bahrain postponed.
Nothing is impossible. You can do it. May be you can beat the crap out of Japan in the nearest future.