KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The Asian Football Confederation has postponed the 2027 Asian Cup by almost a year because of the conflict in the Middle East and security concerns in Saudi Arabia.
The AFC issued a statement Tuesday saying after extensive consultations with Saudi organizers it had decided to push the tournament kickoff back from Jan. 7 to Dec. 23.
The organizing committee “approved to reschedule the flagship national team tournament in light of the current exceptional circumstances arising from developments in the region, including substantial logistical complexities and travel disruptions,” the AFC said in a statement.
“Exceptional circumstances have been created for the organization and delivery of the competition as originally scheduled, making the postponement necessary in the interest of all participating teams, officials, spectators and other stakeholders.”
The new dates — Dec. 23, 2027 to Jan. 21, 2028, will be submitted to FIFA for approval.
The decision to delay the tournament ends months of speculation about a postponement which, until recently, had been rejected by local organizers.
As recently as last week, Saudi officials released the kickoff times and finalized schedule for the 2027 tournament in a move aimed at assuring continental soccer federations that planning was on track despite deadly recent attacks in Saudi Arabia by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Muhammed Q. Alghamdi, a spokesman for the organizing committee, last month told members at an Asian Football Confederation meeting in Tokyo that “daily life is ongoing in Saudi Arabia,” despite the regional hostilities.
Before that meeting, AFC President Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa had indicated that the Asian Cup could be be postponed by a year if necessary, saying “we can wait until the end of November” to make a decision.”
The monthlong tournament was scheduled to feature 24 teams playing matches in eight venues across three cites — Riyadh, Jeddah, and Khobar. Iran has been grouped with with Syria, China and Kyrgyzstan for the league stage.
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FILE - Asia Football Confederation President Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, left, poses with FIFA President Gianni Infantino during an inauguration ceremony for the new building of the Asia Football Confederation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The death toll from a Russian attack in southern Ukraine on a site where people had gathered to receive humanitarian aid rose to 29 on Tuesday, with 48 still missing, as a wave of overnight strikes targeted power plants across the country, damaged hospitals and wounded scores of people.
Dozens of rescuers and volunteers continued to search the cratered blast site of a destroyed aid facility and shelter in Komyushuvakha, a village in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, hoping to find missing residents alive under the rubble. Instead, more bodies were pulled out and carried away in white plastic sheeting.
“The scale of the tragedy is terrifying,” Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of the region’s military administration, wrote in an online post. “This is one of the worst tragedies in terms of the number of civilian victims in our region since the start of the full-scale war.”
Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles across nine regions, triggering emergency power cuts, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an online post that noted the barrage coincided with U.S. elections.
“The Russians think America won’t notice this signal of theirs,” he said. “But we need to notice and stop such terror. We need to help Ukraine defend its skies; otherwise, Russia will never stop its missile strikes.”
Three days of mourning were declared in Zaporizhzhia where Russian bunker-busting bombs, filled with nearly 1.5 tons of explosives, were used in Monday’s attack.
The dead included four police officers and two rescue workers, Semikin said Tuesday. At least five people were hurt.
In the northeast region of Kharkiv, a combined Russian missile and drone attack wounded at least 62 people, local authorities said.
A strike damaged a medical facility in the Nemyshlianskyi district, shattered windows in four apartment buildings and damaged cars. More than 200 patients were transferred to other medical facilities, head of the regional military administration Oleh Syniehubov said.
In the Dnipro area, rescuers pulled a woman alive from the rubble Tuesday morning, after a Russian attack killed one person and wounded 17, local authorities said.
The attack damaged an outpatient clinic and a hospital. Patients were transferred to other hospitals, Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration, said.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Tuesday that it had shot down 856 Ukrainian drones overnight. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 493 drones were fired toward the Russian capital.
A Ukrainian drone attack wounded two employees at an oil refinery in the Russian city of Yaroslavl, regional Gov. Mikhail Yevrayev said Tuesday. He added that there was damage to the refinery’s infrastructure.
Rolling blackouts have been instituted in the south, west and east of Russian-occupied Crimea following attacks on energy infrastructure, Moscow-installed officials said Tuesday.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, rescuers evacuate a wounded civilian from a residential building after Russian air attack in Dnipro, Ukraine, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a residential building is seen following a Russian air attack in Dnipro, Ukraine, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, rescuers evacuate a wounded civilian from a residential building after Russian air attack in Dnipro, Ukraine, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
People take shelter from Russian drone and missile attacks in a metro station, now used as a bomb shelter, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
A woman and her cat take shelter from a Russian drone and missile attack, in a metro station, now used as a bomb shelter, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
