have we ever competed in the Toulon Tournament? Seems like a really good platform for young players to show their skills.. do you gotta pay to get invited?

So it would appear USA and England friendly games are off. Just too hard to set up and get there for Australian based staff apparently.

Incredibly frustrating. England have announced Ireland as their opponent. On the one hand I find it a massive cop out yet again but also feel any game that may be seen as unnecessary here should probably be forgone. 

Are their any coaches or staff based in Europe who could at least sort some kind of camp and maybe a game against anyone? 

Arnold's best mate announced it on the Fox Football Podcast 

I thought Meulenstein eas based in Europe. And then FFA could have just purchased other staff, such as physios, as needed.  You could even hire a temporary retired coach to run a camp and provide feedback to Arnie, on players fitness, mentality etc.  How hard really is this, it’s not rocket science, and other countries manage to arrange games? What a joke.

🔸 #AsianQualifiers Round 2 matches should be completed by June 15, 2021

🔸 #AsianQualifiers Final Round should be finished by the end of March 2022

🔸 #AFCU19 Uzbekistan will be on March 3 - 20, 2021

Bahrain 3 Lebanon 1
Bosnia Herzegovina 0 Iran 2

Japan play Panama today.
Costa Rica Qatar 
Jordan Iraq 
Uzbekistan Syria 

Really annoyed we have nothing at all. 

With Scotland qualifying for Euro’s next it wouldn’t surprise me if they made a last pitch to Harry Souttar and try to entice him back to their set up.

After all he’s from there and often a risk with duel internationals is they can change their mind.

Scotland didn't want Souttar before the qualification began , what's changed? 

Well he's doing well for Stoke City and maybe that might interest Scotland again, then again they got some good defenders as well but it will be interesting if they make a pitch for him next year with the Euro's as bait.

I guess he could replace McKenna on the bench if it was an option, are you sure it's even possible to do that considering he's already played a World Cup qualifier ?

Souttar wouldn’t be eligible until he went 3 years without a Socceroos cap. Still another 2 years to go. 

And we only have to cap him once more to lock him in now. If he turns down his next callup, then we worry.

If we get the March WCQs locked up then we can lock him, if it goes till Euro's without a Socceroo match then it could become a problem.

Fortunately Scotland have to wait two more years as Bowden said, so they can't use the upcoming Euros to lure him away.

Mexico 3 South Korea 2. Korea led 1:0 for a good while until 3 goals in 3 min for Mexico and a late Korean consolation. 

Saudi Arabia beat Jamaica 3:0. Jamaica with some big names on the bench who have fewer than 10 caps. Unbelievable some didn't get capped earlier. Clearly waiting for other nations or focusing on European club time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW9nlu9r_Gw

Mexico Korea highlights

Qatar vs Bangladesh in qualifying in around 3  hours. 

Does anybody know why other countries are playing WCQ’s games in November/December this year but Socceroos aren’t? 

Good question! 

Only seems to be the one match in the AFC = otherwise we go back to the same break last year

Europe and South America played scheduled WCQs in November.

Qatar vs Bangladesh was played so that Qatar can free up one of their fixtures next year as they are playing both the Copa America and Concacaf Gold Cup in June and July.

Cheers 👍 hope we still send our best squads to copa, Olympics and WCQ’s without a clash?

Group A: Portugal, Serbia, Republic of Ireland, Luxembourg, Azerbaijan

Group B: Spain, Sweden, Greece, Georgia, Kosovo

Group C: Italy, Switzerland, Northern Ireland, Bulgaria, Lithuania

Group D: France, Ukraine, Finland, Bosnia, Kazakhstan

Group E: Belgium, Wales, Czech Republic, Belarus, Estonia

Group F: Denmark, Austria, Scotland, Israel, Faroe Islands, Moldova

Group G: Netherlands, Turkey, Norway, Montenegro, Latvia, Gibraltar

Group H: Croatia, Slovakia, Russia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta

Group I: England, Poland, Hungary, Albania, Andorra, San Marino

Group J: Germany, Romania, Iceland, North Macedonia, Armenia, Liechtenstein

So we're in Scotland's place. Going to Qatar? I think if Australia had the Euro base with more time together and easier travel plus decent conditions and pitches it'd only beneficial. Add the fact that the teams would attack and we'd see some exciting games. 

• Prohibited clashes: For political reasons, matches between following pairs of teams were considered prohibited clashes, unable to be drawn into the same group: Kosovo / Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo / Serbia, Kosovo / Russia, Russia / Ukraine. (Armenia / Azerbaijan and Gibraltar / Spain were also identified as prohibited clashes, but the teams in the former pair were in the same pot for the draw, while the teams in the latter pair were restricted to different-sized groups based on draw pots and conditions.)
• Winter venues: A maximum of two teams whose venues are identified as having high or medium risk of severe winter conditions could be placed in each group: Belarus, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia, Ukraine.
  • The two "hard winter venues" (Faroe Islands and Iceland) generally cannot host games in March or November, and therefore could not be drawn together; the others shall play as few home matches as possible in March and November.
• Excessive travel: A maximum of one pair of teams identified with excessive travel distance in relation to other countries could be placed in each group:
• Azerbaijan: with Iceland, Gibraltar, Portugal.
• Iceland: with Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel.
• Kazakhstan: with England, France, Gibraltar, Iceland, Malta, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Wales. (Andorra and Faroe Islands were also identified with Kazakhstan for excessive travel distance, but the teams were in the same pot for the draw.)

https://www.the-afc.com/afc-home/about-afc/the-president/news/shaikh-salman-afc-congress-is-the-perfect-stage-to-show-our-unity-in-these-excep/

May be of interest. 

Well now that Qatar is in group A albeit friendlies all this arguing shall be settled now aye? :D

The German Facebook response is absolutely livid. Unfortunately they don't know shit about anything Qatar has developed or achieve. They're a rival to whom I'm respectful, resentful and also a bit envious of. It's a really unique set in the football world. 

Interestingly their play list only has 3 or 4 foreign born while 1 or 2 others have foreign roots. It's really very home grown much unlike their handball team.

This move makes the scheduling of the Qatar vs Bangladesh game last week make much more sense as the Euro qualifiers kick off with a triple header in March 2021 and Qatar will need to shift another WCQ game to June 2021 to avoid a clash.

From an AFC perspective if it will be interesting to see if Qatar is still meant to be playing friendlies with Asian countries within a 2023 Asian Cup Qualifiers group as they were previously scheduled to do, given there is minimal overlap with the Eufa friendlies which finish in November 2021.

Bert Van Marwijk returns as 🇦🇪 UAE head coach!

READ: bit.ly/vanmarwijk_uae

Are the any implications regarding visa laws in that we've not played for such a long time?

Surely it's the most recent national team games and squads as the prerequisite for the UK visa. 

If an entire tennis tournament can be set up then surely a game between two teams can happen. These flights are still immensely empty despite cap room.