Australia and Jordan shift match from Amman over security worries

Australia and Jordan shift match from Amman over security worries

Australia and Jordan on Friday agreed to move their upcoming friendly from Amman to Doha after players voiced concerns about security.

The Socceroos are scheduled to face Qatar in Doha on Friday and were then set to meet Jordan four days later in Amman.

But after Australian players expressed worries about travelling to Jordan given tensions in the Mideast, the second match has been relocated.

"We are very grateful to the Jordan Football Association for accepting to relocate the match," said Football Australia chief Martin Kugeler.

"The dialogue with the JFA has been nothing but open, respectful and collaborative.

"I would also like to thank the Australian embassies in Jordan and Qatar for their support, and the Qatar Football Association for helping us facilitate the switch."

Ahead of the Australian squad being announced last week, Professional Footballers Australia, which represents the players, said the Jordan match should not go ahead in Amman.

"With the full support of the PFA, the players have overwhelmingly expressed their view that the Jordan match should be rescheduled or relocated," said chief executive Beau Busch.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade advises Australians to reconsider travel to Jordan "due to the unpredictable security situation" and the "threat of terrorism".

The games were meant to be preparation for the Asian Cup which has been postponed…

In brief

Australia and Jordan on Friday agreed to move their upcoming friendly from Amman to Doha after players voiced concerns about security. "We are very grateful to the Jordan Football Association for accepting to relocate the match," said Football Australia chief Martin Kugeler. Ahead of the Australian squad being announced last week, Professional Footballers Australia, which represents the players, said the Jordan match should not go ahead in Amman.

This is the opening of the story, shared with credit to Al-Monitor. The rest of the report — with every detail — continues on the publisher’s website.

Continue reading at Al-Monitor ↗

Cookie settings

Choose which cookies we may use. You can change this at any time from Cookie settings in the footer. Details of each cookie are in the Cookie Policy.

Strictly necessary

Needed for sign-in, security, payments and remembering these choices. Always on.

Preferences

Remember settings such as dark mode.

Analytics & performance

Help us count visits, understand which pages, devices and countries our readers use, and measure how well the site performs – anonymous and aggregated.

Advertising & marketing

Lets advertising partners show and personalise adverts, measure impressions, clicks and visits, prevent ad fraud and pay us – this is how the free site is funded.

🔔 News notifications

Get headlines from NewsHub on this device — even when the site is closed.

You can switch this off at any time. Works on Android, Windows, Mac and Linux browsers; on iPhone/iPad add the site to your Home Screen first.