The 2027 Asian Cup has been postponed by almost a year amid instability in the Middle East. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing BBC News.
The 24-team tournament — Asia's version of the Euros — was scheduled to take place in Saudi Arabia from 7 January to 5 February next year. The Asian Cup has now been delayed by almost a year and will be held between 23 December 2027 and 21 January 2028.
Sport in the region had already been heavily affected by the US-Iran conflict, which led to the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Formula 1 Grand Prix weekends in April this year. Now the races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi at the end of the year are also in doubt due to that ongoing situation and the current conflict involving the Houthis. If they are cancelled, F1 would have lost four of its 24 events this year.
It is not just football and F1 that have been forced to cancel, reschedule or move high-profile events, and many more remain under threat.
Saudi Pro League
The Saudi Pro League has, for the most part, managed to carry on as usual. Several domestic league games had to be postponed, including three fixtures last month as the situation escalated. The games were moved in the immediate aftermath of the attack on a major airport in Riyadh — though the SPL said they were switched "as a result of mandatory minimum rest periods between matches and to accommodate logistical requirements".
Following the postponement of the Asian Cup, this weekend's full round of Saudi Pro League has been called off. The league once again has not attributed this to conflict in the region, instead saying the calendar would be recalibrated after the cancellation of the Asian Cup to achieve "a more balanced distribution of fixtures".
The AFC Champions League has been affected as well. Cristiano Ronaldo and Kingsley Coman were among Al-Nassr's star players who did not fly to Uzbekistan this week "given the pressure of matches and the amount of travel involved". Al-Wasl of the United Arab Emirates also opted not to fly to Saudi Arabia to play Al-Nassr, and the match will be rearranged.
Meanwhile, the wife of Ollie Watkins, who plays for Riyadh-based Al-Hilal, posted on TikTok that she would be staying in the UK with their two children "until it calms down". "We've had a bit of a plot twist," said Ellie Watkins. "I have come back to the UK for a little bit. There's just a little bit of conflict and things going on over in Saudi and we basically decided just to stay here. I felt like I needed to do that for the kids so there is some form of normality until we can get back out there and all be together."
Other well-known stars playing in the country include Gabriel Martinelli, Tijjani Reijnders, Darwin Nunez, Ivan Toney, Alexandre Lacazette, Ruben Neves, Sadio Mane and Joao Felix.
Formula 1 dilemma
Formula 1 has a major dilemma about racing in the Middle East both at the end of this season and the beginning of next. Most pressingly, the 2026 season is due to end with races in Qatar on 27-29 November and Abu Dhabi on 4-6 December. As things stand, the sport is pressing ahead with plans to go to those races after being given security reassurances from various governmental sources that it should be safe. There are, though, many people within the sport with misgivings about going. Should the situation in the Middle East deteriorate in the next week or so, they could be called off and replaced with a single event in Imola in Italy on the Abu Dhabi weekend.
The 2027 season is scheduled to start in Bahrain on 12-14 March, with Saudi Arabia hosting on the following weekend. But as things stand between Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni Houthi separatists, that race could not go ahead, and is likely to be cancelled if nothing changes by December. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are linked by a causeway, at the Saudi end of which is a facility belonging to state oil company Aramco, which has been targeted by the Houthis, while it joins Bahrain close to the F1 track.