KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s results for the Asian qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the 2023 AFC Asian Cup have been declared null and void following the team's withdrawal, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said Thursday.
DPRK's withdrawal also caused an adjustment on how to decide the four best runner-up teams to qualify for the next round of Asian qualifiers, said the Asian football governing body.
The AFC's announcement came after the decision of the Bureau for the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers on the final standings of the qualifiers following DPRK's withdrawal.
"As part of efforts to ensure fairness for all participating teams, it was decided that the results of all DPR Korea matches will be declared null and void," said AFC.
The second round of Asian Qualifiers which had involved 40 teams in eight groups before DPRK's withdrawal, will complete the remaining matches by mid-June. The eight group leaders and four best runners-up teams will qualify for the next round.
Due to the DPRK's withdrawal, the results of the matches between the second-placed and the last-placed teams in Groups A to G would not be counted to ensure a balanced final comparison between all group runners-up and to alleviate any possible imbalance between the seven qualifying groups caused by the sudden reduction of Group H to only four teams after the DPRK's pulling out, said the AFC.
The four best runners-up would be determined in the following order: 1. Greatest number of points obtained from the group matches; 2. Goal difference in the group matches; 3. Greater number of goals scored in the group matches; 4. Fair play points system: fewer number of points calculated according to the number of yellow and red cards received by the team in the group phase; 5. Drawing of lots.
Earlier in May, AFC confirmed DPRK's withdrawal from the World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers. The move comes after the DPRK said in April that it would not participate in the Tokyo Olympics this July due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic. Enditem
