Japan Goes Up Against North Korea

[Mulboyne]

The draw for the qualifying rounds for the next World Cup has just taken place in Rio. Japan is in the Asian Zone Group C and will now face Uzbekistan, Syria and North Korea. Full details of the draw are here (PDF). FIFA does seek to keep teams apart where there are political tensions which might lead to fan violence. For instance, Russia and Georgia as well as Armenia and Azerbaijan could not be drawn together. Japan and North Korea was not deemed to be a problem: the teams have met before and some of North Korea's team play in Japan.