Football: Japan to grant China, Saudi teams entry for World Cup q'fiers

The Japanese government is set to allow China and Saudi Arabia's men's soccer teams to enter the country for their 2022 World Cup final Asian qualifying matches through early February, a source close to the matter said Friday.While the government is banning new entries by nonresident foreign nationals to Japan to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the matches were deemed special cases given their public interest and urgency, the source said.The Japan Football Association said later in the day the two matches will go ahead as scheduled. Second-place Japan will host…READ FULL ARTICLE