Soccer-Jordan's friendly with Indonesia cancelled over security fears

Jordan have cancelled next week's international against Indonesia at the request of the Indonesian FA (PSSI) but say a friendly with Australia in Amman will go ahead despite the security ‌situation in the Middle East. The Jordanian FA announced the cancellation of next Friday's match against Indonesia late on Thursday, saying PSSI had apologised for not fulfilling the fixture.

"We decided to cancel it primarily due to security considerations," a PSSI official told Reuters on Friday. "We know that the situation ‌in the Middle East is currently not good, so we took into account concerns that it could affect the psychological well-being ‌of the players and the team.

"Based on that, I communicated with the coach and PSSI chief that we had to be brave enough to take a stance." The official said PSSI might look to arrange another fixture in the November international window but that was unlikely given the limited time available.

The friendlies were originally planned to help ⁠all ​three teams prepare for the Asian ⁠Cup but that was postponed on Tuesday until December next year following attacks on host nation Saudi Arabia by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement. The Jordanian FA said in its ⁠statement that the November 17 friendly against Australia at Amman International Stadium was "still scheduled to take place, without any changes".

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on ​Friday that Football Australia had delayed the announcement of the squad for the Jordan friendly and one against Qatar next Friday ⁠because some players were unhappy about making the trip to Amman. There was no immediate response on Friday to a request for comment from Football Australia about the Jordan match.

Jordan ⁠launched ​airstrikes on what it said were Islamic State militants in neighbouring Syria late last month in response to an attack on a church that killed 9 people and injured 40. Attacks such as the church shooting are rare in the country, a relatively stable US ⁠ally, but a security officer was killed and another wounded in a stabbing attack in Amman on Thursday.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs ⁠and Trade is advising its citizens ⁠to "reconsider" the need "to travel to Jordan due to the unpredictable security situation in Jordan and the region, and the threat of terrorism". Australians are advised to "exercise a high degree of caution" when visiting Qatar after ‌the alert level was ‌lowered last month.