How sporting events are being impacted by Middle East conflict

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The Qatar Grand Prix is scheduled to be held at the Lusail International Circuit between 27and 29 November.

The 2027 Asian Cup is just the latest event to be postponed in the Middle East amid concerns about missile attacks by Yemen’s Houthi movement.

The 24-team tournament – Asia’s version of the Euros – was scheduled to take place in Saudi Arabia from 7 January to 5 February next year.

The Asian Cup has now been delayed by almost a year, and will be held between 23 December, 2027 and 21 January, 2028.

Sport in the region had already been heavily affected by the US-Iran conflict, which led to the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Formula 1 Grand Prix weekends in April this year.

Now the races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi at the end of the year are also in doubt due to that ongoing situation and the current conflict involving the Houthis. If they are cancelled, F1 would have lost four of its 24 events this year.

It is not just football and F1 that have been forced to cancel, reschedule or move high-profile events, and many more remain under threat.

BBC Sport takes a look at the situation across the sports.

Football

The Saudi Pro League has, for the most part, managed to carry on as usual.

Several ​domestic ⁠league games had to be postponed, including three fixtures last month as the situation escalated.

The games were moved in the immediate aftermath of the attack on a major airport in Riyadh – though the SPL said they were switched “as a result of mandatory minimum rest periods between matches and to accommodate logistical requirements”.

Following the postponement of the Asian Cup, this weekend’s full round of Saudi Pro League has been called off.

The league once again has not attributed this to conflict in the region, instead saying the calendar would be recalibrated after the cancellation of the Asian Cup to achieve “a more balanced distribution of fixtures”.

The AFC Champions League has been affected as well.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Kingsley Coman were among Al-Nassr’s star players who did not to fly to Uzbekistan this week “given the pressure of matches and the amount of travel involved”.

Al-Wasl of the United Arab Emirates also opted not to fly to Saudi Arabia to play Al-Nassr, and the match will be rearranged.

Meanwhile, the wife of Ollie Watkins, who plays for Riyadh-based Al-Hilal, posted on TikTok that she would be staying in the UK with their two children “until it calms down”.

“We’ve had a bit of a plot twist,” said Ellie Watkins. “I have come back to the UK for a little bit.

“There’s just a little bit of conflict and things going on over in Saudi and we basically decided just to stay here.

“I felt like I needed to do that for the kids so there is some form of normality until we can get back out there and all be together.”

Other well-known stars playing in the country include Gabriel Martinelli, Tijjani Reijnders, Darwin Nunez, Ivan Toney, Alexandre Lacazette, Ruben Neves, Sadio Mane and Joao Felix.

Formula 1

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The United Arab Emirates is due to hold an Formula One race next month

Formula 1 has a major dilemma about racing in the Middle East both at the end of this season and the beginning of next.

Most pressingly, the 2026 season is due to end with races in Qatar on 27-29 November and Abu Dhabi on 4-6 December.

As things stand, the sport is pressing ahead with plans to go to those races after being given security reassurances from various governmental sources that it should be safe.

There are, though, many people within the sport with misgivings about going.

Should the situation in the Middle East deteriorate in the next week or so, they could be called off and replaced with a single event in Imola in Italy on the Abu Dhabi weekend.

The 2027 season is scheduled to start in Bahrain on 12-14 March, with Saudi Arabia hosting on the following weekend.

But as things stand between Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni Houthi separatists, that race could not go ahead, and is likely to be cancelled if nothing changes by December.

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are linked by a causeway, at the Saudi end of which is a facility belonging to state oil company Aramco, which has been targeted by the Houthis, while it joins Bahrain close to the F1 track.

One option being discussed is to hold that race in Malaysia, as was done in October this year.

Other motorsport

The Dakar Rally was due to take place in Saudi Arabia in January but has been moved “following recent developments in the region”.

Now the 2027 edition will begin in Loule-Faro in Portugal and end in Marrakech in Morocco.

Saudi Arabia had hosted the previous seven editions of Dakar, and the intention is to return in 2028.

Rally Saudi Arabia, part of the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship, which was scheduled for 12–15 November, has been cancelled.

But MotoGP will still take place this weekend at the Lusail International Circuit in Doha, Qatar, with three races left in the season.

It will go ahead without the Yamaha team, which has been advised against travelling from Japan.

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Novak Djokovic is due to take part in the Six Kings Slam

The Six Kings Slam, which should have begun on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has been postponed by two months.

It is now scheduled to run from 27 December to 30 December at the ANB Arena, located about 31km away from the King Khalid International Airport, which was the target of an attack on 10 October that killed 13 people and injured 308 others.

Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Alex de Minaur, Taylor Fritz and Learner Tien are due to compete.

But the 2026 WTA Finals, this weekend’s season-ending championship of the women’s tour, will not take place in Saudi Arabia.

A mutual agreement was reached to terminate a hosting agreement early, and it will instead take place at Indian Wells in the United States.

Saudi Arabia regularly hosts title fights and high-profile bouts.

Only last week, Mexican legend Canelo Alvarez reclaimed the WBC super middleweight championship against Christian Mbilli.

But the whole of the card did not survive as Lindolfo Delgado withdrew from his IBF lightweight title fight against Arthur Biyarslanov over safety concerns.

Next on the schedule is the Zuffa Boxing event, which will feature Carlos Adames against Welshman Gerome Warburton in Riyadh Season 13, on 14 November.

The WWE Crown Jewel 2026 event will still take place this weekend, but at a new venue.

It was originally scheduled for the Kingdom Arena, before being switched to the ANB arena.

The reigning men’s and women’s world champions of WWE’s Raw and SmackDown face each other.

Roman Reigns, Sami Zayn, Liv Morgan, Chelsea Green, Bron Breakker, Austin Theory, Penta, Je’Von Evans, Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton are on the bill.

Other sports impacted

The FIFAe Finals, an esports tournament series organised by Fifa, should have taken place in Jeddah last month but was cancelled.

This week’s UCI Urban Cycling World Championships, for the world’s leading riders in trials and BMX Freestyle, in Riyadh was called off too, with a decision due “on the sporting consequences of this announcement”.

The PIF Saudi International event, the season finale of the Asian Tour, will not be held between 18-21 November at Riyadh Golf Club.

After “an assessment of the organisational and logistical challenges associated with hosting the tournament” the decision was taken to call it off.

And on Tuesday, the Professional Triathletes Organisation said it was moving the Saudi Arabia T100 and World Triathlon Cup, in Jeddah, from the end of this month to 16-17 April.

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