Quarantine requirements in Japan force derby between Melbourne and City to be postponed

The A-League fixture continues to be altered, with Saturday night’s derby between Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory among the games affected.

Melbourne City players celebrate a Jamie Maclaren goal in an A-League derby against Melbourne Victory. Picture: Mike Owen/Getty Images

The Melbourne derby between City and Victory scheduled for Saturday night at AAMI Park has been postponed as the A-League fixture is affected by Covid-19 ramifications in Japan.

The postponement is to allow Victory to spend the updated and necessary quarantine period in Japan ahead of its AFC Champions League playoff against Vissel Kobe next Tuesday night.

Under Japan’s new vaccination requirements, only fully vaccinated Australian travellers who have received a booster are not required to quarantine or isolate on arrival.

With more than 90 per cent of the Victory squad having had Covid-19 in recent weeks, several players are yet to receive their booster for health reasons, which means they must spend three days in quarantine on arriving in Japan.

The Victory squad and coaching staff will leave for Japan on Friday and be restricted to a bubble-style environment – which will allow them to train – until the match.

“It’s a perfect storm in that Victory are playing in Japan, where the vaccination requirements have just changed, on a date that creates a clash with their A-League game,” A-League commissioner Greg O’Rourke told the competition’s Keep Up website.

“If they were playing in a different AFC member country, this wouldn’t have been an issue, and we have tried hard to secure an exemption to avoid these changes.

“Sadly, our efforts were not successful.”

Melbourne City’s Scott Galloway (front) and Melbourne Victory’s Ben Folami battle for the ball in a derby last season. Picture: Mike Owen/Getty Images

The Victory’s away clash against Central Coast Mariners will go ahead as scheduled on Wednesday, with the City-Victory derby now to be played on Saturday week.

That has led to the match originally scheduled for Saturday week between Sydney FC and the Victory being postponed as well.

“The unprecedented scheduling challenges faced due to Covid-19 created a congested fixture schedule for the month of March and further disruptions are now being faced as a result of the flooding crisis in both Queensland and NSW,” a statement from the A-League said.

“The flooding has caused significant issues with venue availability which has forced further changes.”

Sydney’s match against Western United, due to be played on Friday night at Leichhardt Oval, has been postponed.

However, both teams will now be in action on Saturday, with United to play Melbourne City at AAMI Park, and Sydney to meet the Glory in Perth.

The Glory is also in action next Tuesday night against the Mariners in Perth.

This weekend’s matches between Brisbane Roar and Wellington Phoenix (Saturday, Moreton Daily Stadium), Macarthur FC and Western Sydney Wanderers (Saturday, Campbelltown Stadium) and Adelaide United and Newcastle Jets (Sunday, Coopers Stadium) will go ahead as scheduled.

Originally published as Quarantine requirements in Japan force derby between Melbourne and City to be postponed