F1 cancels Bahrain and Saudi Arabia race weekends due to safety concerns<\/a><\/p>\nFormula 1 has cancelled its grand prix weekends in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, as war in the Middle East continues.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other venues had reportedly been considered as alternatives to Doha, including Spain’s capital.<\/p>\n
UEFA, however, said all other feasible alternatives it explored “ultimately proved unacceptable to the Argentinian Football Association”.<\/p>\n
“The first option was to stage the match at the Santiago Bernab\u00e9u stadium in Madrid on the original date with a 50:50 split of supporters in the stadium,” UEFA said.<\/p>\n
“This would have provided a world-class setting, befitting of such a prestigious event, but Argentina refused.”<\/p>\n
The option of staging the event over two legs \u2014 one in Madrid on March 27, the other in Buenos Aires before the Euros and Copa America in 2028 \u2014 was also rejected.<\/p>\n
Argentina had proposed to play the match later this year after the World Cup but Spain had no available dates.<\/p>\n
South American soccer body CONMEBOL said in a statement on Sunday that Argentina’s soccer federation (AFA) received an offer from UEFA to play the match in Italy on March 27, but the defending World Cup and Copa America champions countered that the game take place on March 31.<\/p>\n
“Regrettably, UEFA said the match taking place on the 31st \u2014 only four days after their original offer \u2014 was not possible, and so the Finalissima was cancelled,” the South American confederation said.<\/p>\n
“CONMEBOL and AFA regret deeply that, despite all the efforts and the manifested interest in playing the match in a neutral ground since the first moment, it was not possible.”<\/p>\n
![\"Argentina](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/8c3ee01bcace5860d9198ac1a6950d42.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Lionel Messi and Argentina lifted the Finalissima trophy the last time it was played in 2022. This year’s event has been called off. (Getty Images: NurPhoto\/Pics Action\/Jose Breton)<\/p>\n
Argentina won the inaugural edition of the Finalissima in 2022 with a 3-0 victory over Italy at Wembley Stadium in London.<\/p>\n
The violence in the Middle East, where Iran is hitting the Gulf Arab states with drone and missile attacks, has stranded travellers, upset economic markets and sent oil prices soaring.<\/p>\n
It has also impacted the world of international sport beyond the Finalissima.<\/p>\n
Formula 1’s races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia scheduled for April have been called off due to the war, while President Donald Trump has suggested that Iran not participate in this summer’s World Cup that is co-hosted by the US.<\/p>\n
AP<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UEFA says the football international between Argentina and Spain known as Finalissima that was supposed to be held…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5312],"tags":[10105,78274,55361,84479,2000,299,1512,105677,839,6860,811,10031,22713,104,93,771],"class_list":["post-828331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-argentina","tag-cancelled","tag-champions","tag-doha","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-fifa","tag-finalissima","tag-middle-east","tag-qatar","tag-security","tag-soccer","tag-south-america","tag-spain","tag-sport","tag-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116235632869653438","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}