Asia asks for date change

Asian Football officials have written to FIFA asking them to change one of the dates for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.

AFC president Mohamed Bin Hammam said he had asked soccer's world governing body to switch one of the scheduled match dates, set for August next year, to an earlier timeslot to avoid extreme weather conditions in the Middle East.

"We have a policy that we don't play in extreme heat and we don't play in extreme cold," Bin Hammam told reporters yesterday.

"We have written to FIFA objecting to playing in August in the Middle East. We are fighting to avoid that date and we think we have already succeeded."

Bin Hammam said the final schedule for the third round of Asia's World Cup qualifiers would also be delayed until all the competing associations had agreed on a programme.

He said some countries, such as Iraq, had to find neutral countries where they could play their home matches.

Five groups of four teams were decided at Sunday's draw in South Africa, with only the top two teams from each group to go through to the next phase.