North Korea told to play behind closed doors

North Korea have been ordered to play their next World Cup qualifying game against Japan at a neutral venue behind closed doors, following the crowd trouble which accompanied their defeat by Iran.

North Korea’s punishment, along with a 20,000 Swiss franc fine, came after their 2-0 defeat to Iran on March 30. The match ended with home fans hurling bottles and chairs on to the pitch.

The violence continued afterwards and Iran’s players were stopped from boarding the team bus before riot police eventually cleared the crowd.

In a separate decision from FIFA’s disciplinary committee meeting in Zurich, Iran have been ordered to play their next home game against North Korea on June 3 in a stadium with a maximum attendance of 50,000 spectators. This follows the Iran-Japan match on March 26 when six fans were trampled to death leaving a 100,000 capacity ground.

Meanwhile, Georgia must play their next two home games behind closed doors, collowing crowd trouble crowd trouble in their matches against Greece and Turkey in March.