Riyadh missile strikes raise player fears over Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia

Players are asking serious questions about the Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia after missile strikes on Riyadh's international airport killed more than a dozen people and wounded hundreds in recent days, according to The Guardian. The tournament, Asia's men's national-team championship held every four years, is due to open on 7 January.

The worry centres on Riyadh. Five of the tournament's eight venues are in the Saudi capital. The city is set to stage 31 matches, including the final on 5 February.

Saudi Arabia will meet Palestine in the opener on 7 January. Australia will begin away from the capital, with its game against Singapore on 9 January scheduled for Al Khobar. That city on the Gulf coast is due to host seven matches.

Football Australia said it was closely monitoring the situation and that player safety remains paramount. It said it remains in regular contact with Professional Footballers Australia, the players' union, and will continue dialogue with the Asian Football Confederation, the body that runs the Asian Cup, about tournament plans.

That union link matters. Beau Busch is chief executive of Professional Footballers Australia and president of Fifpro Asia/Oceania, the regional arm of the global players' organisation Fifpro, which says it represents more than 70,000 players through 68 national unions.

There are already signs of disruption. The Japanese Football Association has withdrawn from the FIFAe World Cup, a video game competition, due to be held in Saudi Arabia later this month. On Monday, Al-Nassr's match in the Asian Champions League, the continent's top club competition, was delayed by an hour after a Saudi-led military coalition said it had intercepted a missile fired by the Houthis towards Riyadh.

Australia's immediate calendar adds to the focus. The Socceroos, the nickname for Australia's men's national team, are due to travel to the region in the November international window for matches against Qatar in Doha and Jordan in Amman.

Concern is not new. Reports in March said foreign players in the Saudi Pro League, Saudi Arabia's top division, had indicated they wanted to leave in the immediate aftermath of earlier strikes. The draw for the 2027 tournament was rescheduled for 9 May in Riyadh, a move attributed at the time to disruption from the United States-Israel war on Iran.

For fans, this means uncertainty with less than three months to go. The football is fixed. The venues are fixed. Safety is now the question no one in the game can avoid.