Team Korea confirm‎s advance to final qualifying round of 2018 World Cup

Team Korea confirm‎s advance to final qualifying round of 2018 World Cup. January. 15, 2016 07:53. wing@donga.com.

The Korean national team under Coach Uli Stielike has confirmed its advance to the fourth round of qualifying for the 2018 FIFA the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

FIFA said on Thursday that it decided to consider the result of the match between Kuwait and Myanmar as Kuwait’s 0-3 forfeiture in Group G in the second qualifying round for the Asian region of the Russian World Cup, which was originally scheduled to take place on November 17, 2015 but was postponed.

Irrespective of outcome of the two remaining preliminaries, Korea whose ranking is first in Group G in the second qualifying round is now set to advance to the final qualifying round. Even if Kuwait, which now ranks second with three wins, one draw and two losses (10 points) in Group 2 due to forfeiture of the match, wins both of the two remaining preliminaries and secures 16 points, the team in no way can exceed Korea’s current score of 18 (six wins) as of Thursday. Eight teams that rank first in their respective groups and four teams that rank second in groups that post good records in the second qualifying round come to advance to the final qualifying round.

Kuwait was given forfeiture while being disciplined, because the Kuwaiti Football Association did not accept FIFA’s demand. In October last year, FIFA demanded the Kuwaiti Football Association to amend its constitution that allows the government to intervene in selection of the association’s executives.

Kuwaiti Football Association failed to show any willingness to revise the constitution while FIFA has banned Kuwait from participating in competitions hosted by FIFA until the constitution is amended. As a result, FIFA decided to hand Kuwait forfeiture of the match against Myanmar, which had been postponed once.

If the Kuwaiti football association fails to amend the constitution in question until the day of the match against Korea in the second qualifying round, which is scheduled on March 29, Kuwait will be given forfeiture of the game again.